The Rose Retraction Watercolor on paper 22 x 31 cm (Credits for references: marjoleinart-stock, mamacatayes-stock, astrals-stock, Iadinea)  I have never spent so much energy on a single painting in my entire life. Oh my gosh I am so happy with this one! I think it's the paper I used (it's different from the I one I used for the first watercolor attempt), but in any case, I am so proud of this painting! <3 ...

Continue Reading

I mentioned in a previous post that I was invited to a basic Chinese painting workshop; well, this is the result! The workshop was so much fun; I never thought that Chinese painting, which seems so simple and elegant, could be so difficult! Apparently, it's all in the brushstroke - a Chinese painting must always be composed of loose, single brushstrokes. Here are some photographs I took during the introductory lecture: Our instructor, Dr. Alex...

Continue Reading

Last week, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend a private get-together with Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones, an African-American author who has so far penned only three books but each has already set his writing career in stone. One in particular, The Known World, which nabbed for Jones the renowned Pulitzer, is a novel centered on the concept of black people owning black slaves. For the get-together, I was only able to read...

Continue Reading

In my freshman year of college, I applied with all the unbridled excitement of a little girl graced with the presence of a beautiful new Barbie for membership in the only art organization of the time, charmingly named Mostra d'Arte (the meaning of which still eludes me until now, when the organization sadly no longer exists). Orientation was immediate and quick: under the guidance of a lanky, quirky upperclassman, I was briefed on the org's basic...

Continue Reading

Last month, my former Fine Arts professor approached me with the verbal invitation to a painting workshop, to be held in November within the school's walls. She imparted a vague description of the workshop, leaving me with the impression that it would be conducted by sixteen Chinese painters (I was thinking, wow that's a lot). However, I finally received the actual invitation via Facebook just the other day, and I discovered that it's a workshop...

Continue Reading

One of my dearest friends recently introduced me to the work of Rima Staines, a true-blue bonafide gypsy; she actually traveled for a year and a day in a house on wheels (it's so much fun to picture it!), exploring the world and 'the otherness that can be found on the periphery of our lives, the strange and grotesque, the absurd and unnerving... that topsy turvy in between place where things are not quite what they seem...'...

Continue Reading