Daily Archives: April 17, 2009

Art and Culture, Asia

A Long Learning Curve

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Spring             Waning Seed Moon

This morning Chinese language students from the St. Paul Central class of 2009 came to the museum.  They were bright kids, interested.  Mostly in their third year of study, they have learned little about China’s history and culture.  My tour introduced them to the bronze tradition, the history of the five major calligraphic styles and ended with an examination of literati culture in the Ming dynasty.

Working with bright, engaged kids makes touring a pleasure as it was this morning.   Many of the kids were Chinese and some spoke Chinese well.

This was the beginning of a much longer learning curve for me on calligraphy.  I want to appreciate Chinese painting from within the Chinese aesthetic framework as well as  learn some Chinese characters along the way.

As a docent, I appreciate the flexibility it offers to devise self-directed areas of study, then try them out on a live audience.  Go back and revise.  Learn more.  Try again.  Those of us with omnivorous intellectual appetites are well-suited.

Sleepy.  Time for a nap.

Art and Culture, Cinema and Television, Weather +Climate

Another Day in Andover

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Spring            Waning Seed Moon

It’s dry here.  We need rain for the crops and for the flowers and the trees.  I don’t care about the lawn.

The tours this morning shoud be fun.  I’m going in a new direction with the calligraphy and it’s one I can pursue for a while.  In fact, I’m sending for a few books on calligraphy.  I already have ink stick, ink stone, brushes and rice (mulberry) paper.  These are the four treasures of the literati study, but I’ve never used them.   Now I will.

Watched a touching  movie on the Independent Film Channel last night, The Syrian Bride.  A woman, a Druze Syrian, lives in the Golan Heights, formerly part of Syria, or, still part of Syria depending on whether you’re Israeli or Syrian.  Therein lies the story line as the bride has a match with a television personality in Syria.  She has to cross the border to get married but many problems ensue, both within the family and at the border.

In the end Mona, the bride, solves the problem by walking across the border with no one’s permission.  Her sister Alma, likewise, walks away from her husband, presumably toward a long-denied university education. Worth a watch.