art attack!

A small recent painting with charcoal sketches from a figure drawing class Ross and I attend near our house. I haven't drawn from a model since my first semester in college, so it's been over 6 years. It's all come back really quickly; and strangely enough more effortlessly than when i used to do it weekly in high school. I still have a bitch of a time finishing during the sessions, and specifically in finding the time to get to the faces...

videos of home

For my 50th post (YAY!),I present an updated video tour of my and ross' apartment.

living room and cat/plant balcony

"hallway" and kitchen with view

大殓 ( means big face. DA-pronounced the same way you'd shout "BOO!", and LIEN- kind of how you'd say a dramatic "huh?") the cat, our sporadically messy room and the studio/2nd balcony

we three

thankfully the recent earthquakes didn't reach beijing in a significant way. here are some recent pics

where the Great Wall meets the Pacific

The small city of 山海关 (Shan Hai Guan, roughly translated as mountain meets sea) is where the Great Wall crashes into the ocean. sounds amazing and romantic enough, but the entire old city is being demolished and rebuilt in an Epcot center generic chinese style. it's a little unfortunate because the old buildings, of which there are precious few left, are mixed chinese and neo-classical russian styles made entire out of local rose colored and white marble. we made our way there last weekend for a long weekend labor holiday.