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Ad Astra,

The Bride of the First House.
bride (at) livejournal (dot) com

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weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		11.6°C
mood	:		tired

To Demonstrate the Evolution of Spoon from Hand 2003 by Anne Wan 尹麗娟

Try this link if the one above doesn't work for you...

I saw this piece at the Hong Kong CLK airport in the departure hall by Gate 35. It's done in slip-cast porcelain and was one of many sculptures on display in large glass cases. Some of the others were hers as well and some of the others were by other artists.

This sculpture really struck a chord with me. It was much more expressive to me than the placard description.

In my mind, the Spoon From Hand symbolizes Give and Take. You take with hands; you give with spoons. Certainly, you can also give with hands and you can also take with spoons as well. It isn't clear which is doing what. And the pieces in the middle are some blend of the two.

In taking, we also give. In giving, we also take.

Neither exists without the other. They are intricately related. There isn't a clean cut distinction between the two. It isn't always clear, they're never pure actions in and of themselves.

To me, the sculpture speaks to the nature of our relationships whether it's with family, other people, our environment or even ourselves. Relationships are a two way street, requiring give and take from all parties. This is perhaps why there are two sets.

But, of course, I've been known to completely miss the point in artwork before.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		11°C
mood	:		okay

I'm not much into art, except for maybe M. C. Escher. Very few paintings make me want to stand still and stare. But this is one of them.

	萬
	里
	可
	橫
	行

It's entitled Maestro, by Talantbek Chekirov. I'd never heard of this artist before, but I like his paintings. There's also a white female horse (Penelope), but the Maestro looks more alive to me.

It reminds me of this Du Fu poem:

房 fáng	兵 bīng	曹 cáo	胡 hú	馬 mǎ	詩 shī
杜 dù	甫 fǔ
胡 hú	馬 mǎ	大 dà	宛 wǎn	名 míng
鋒 fēng	稜 léng	瘦 shòu	骨 gú	成 chéng
竹 zhú	批 pī	雙 shuāng	耳 ěr	峻 jùn
風 fēng	入 rù	四 sì	蹄 tí	輕 qīng
所 suǒ	向 xiàng	無 wú	空 kōng	闊 kuò
真 zhēn	堪 kān	託 tuō	死 sǐ	生 shēng
驍 xiāo	騰 téng	有 yǒu	如 rú	此 cǐ
萬 wàn	里 lǐ	可 kě	橫 héng	行 xíng

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		15°C
mood	:		tired

紅 掌 撥 青 波

白 毛 浮 綠 水

曲 吭 向 天 歌

鵝 ﹑ 鵝

I love Lena Liu's art. About 15-20 years ago, when she was just starting out, the bookstores in the malls carried bookmarks with her art on them. I bought every single one I could find. My favorite was the very first one that I bought of the swan (it's not this one I've posted here). It went so well with that swan verse.

The swan, the swan;
Beautiful arched* neck sings to the heavens,
White feathers float on the green water,
Red feet gently tread the clear waves.

* The character for "arched" is the same character for "a song". The word play makes it so amazingly and untranslatably expressive. It's both "arched neck" and "song voice" — "sings to the heavens".

Back then, Lena Liu's paintings were primarily influenced by the Chinese oil painting style. I find that her more recent work has moved away from that, which I think is unfortunate. But her stuff is still very beautiful nonetheless.

"Violin Concerto" is a current favorite as well. =)

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		18°C
mood	:		okay

I said to nightshift a long time ago that if I ever had a decoration scheme in my home, it would be "Elegant Trek". I've already decided that I want Picard's tea set. I want that big white 6-cup teapot and the matching cups. Or something similar. It's the one he always uses for the perpetually interrupted breakfast chats with Beverly where they get no more than two sips in before Riker pages them from the bridge. XD

But other than that, I fantasize that, one day, when money isn't so tight, I will also have one of these custom made for myself:

Archaeological artifacts of small ceramic figures about 30 centimeters high, naiskos statues were produced in ancient times by the people of planet Kurl. These statues were designed to be opened, revealing a multitude of similar but smaller figurines inside, representing the Kurlan belief that each individual is made up of a community of individuals with different voices and desires; "the many voices inside the one". Communities, in turn, are made up of individuals with different voices and desires.

Although many ancient naiskos have been found by archaelogists, relatively few are intact, and fewer still have all the smaller figurines.

Professor Richard Galen gave an intact Kurlan naiskos to his former student, Jean-Luc Picard (The Chase). That particular artifact was even more prized because it was of the third Kurlan dynasty, made some 12,000 years ago by the Kurlan artisan known only as the Master of Tarquin Hill.

In later episodes, Picard's Kurlan Naiskos could be seen adorning a corner table of his ready room. Distressingly, Picard apparently did not take the naiskos with him after the crash of the Enterprise-D in "Generations".

But until then, I'll just have to be satisfied to make this my Random Nerdy-Neat Thing post in my online journal because I have nothing better to write and can't be motivated to clean up, finish off all the disjoint journal fragments to post.