Life is Fragile
31.07.2014 § Leave a comment
There was a typhoon going on during my flight to Tokyo. My brother was very nervous about me going and called to ask me to reconsider. I came anyway.
During the class orientation in Tokyo, we were advised to check the school’s homepage for class cancellation information. They held class on Friday, but I experienced very strong winds commuting between school and home.
This morning I was awakened by a small alarm sound. I did not know where it came from, but there was a voice announcing, “You’re experiencing an earthquake.” I looked at the time; it was around four something. The floor was moving back and forth; it felt a little bit like a massage, only it was not for comfort or for fun. A scary thought came into my mind for a split second, and then quickly it went away. The shaking went on for, I’d say at least three to five minutes while I contemplated how fragile a life can be.
I think it is a healthy thing to be reminded once in a while of this very fact. A person can take this either way, positively making life more meaningful or nihilistically stop trying.
Patching Meditation
02.05.2013 § Leave a comment
I don’t know when people stopped learning how to sew. I guess when ready-to-wear became a common thing, maybe after World War II? I wonder how many young people nowadays know how to do the simplest sewing?
During my childhood, when I visited my grandparents with my siblings and cousins, we would run around their house playing like wild kids. One time my grandmother held me down to show me how to sew up a split pair of pants. She showed me the step-back stitch, a stitch technique that would make a strong seam. I was fascinated and learned it with great interest. That was my only official sewing lesson, but I still use the technique whenever I need something firmly sewn.
The other day I was mumbling that I needed to buy another pair of winter trousers, the kind made of wool with a lining to keep me warm in the coldest winter. My husband went to my other closet and pulled out a whole bunch of trousers and asked me what I was planning to do with those. « Read the rest of this entry »
Story of Diary Notebooks
20.01.2012 § 1 Comment
It is hard to love art but only one kind of art. So it is hard for me to just put efforts into one type or form or media. My major was oil painting and print making but I spent a lot of time on other types of visual arts such as calligraphy. I like the everyday objects that we use, see, handle to be beautiful, love to read beautiful handwriting, and therefore love practicing to make my own handwriting beautiful. (Consider as an example the handwriting of a scientist in the 16th century, the respected Galileo Galilei. Click for image.) « Read the rest of this entry »
Japanese Influence
11.05.2011 § Leave a comment
Maple, pond, stone lantern and koi, a serene Japanese scene
in a Chicago household’s yard by a noisy state road. Looking through the kitchen window, centuries fall away and my mind darts to its image storage house where the opulent Japanese natural surroundings were: dazzling kimonos sail through the endless sakura blossom fields; the girls’ short syllable Japanese words mix with tender laughter; next to a plain straw-roofed tea house is a maple leaf covered pond with a stone bridge; a samurai in a dark blue skirt with swords tucked in his waist strolls solemnly in the garden, the beautiful tassel-braided sward handles flanking his left side.
My mind always rest upon these scenes whenever a slight distraction causes the imagination butterfly to wing. « Read the rest of this entry »
Woven-Words 