Thursday, April 28, 2011

A Sweet Thought
























On his way to the Double Lucky Candy Store, Di Di came across Granny Huang’s chicks far from home. Little Brother wondered if escorting them safely back to his grandmother’s courtyard would soften her heart towards him and make her feel inclined to give him some  more pocket money. Lately his orneriness had hardened her heart and Di Di thought this helpful sweet gesture might make her feelings toward him melt .

Friday, April 15, 2011

Monks in the Sun

This post, as well as the last one, Sister's in Law are not  new work.  Before I came to the US to live some 15 years ago, I lived in Thailand. I never go anywhere, even now, without my little traveling studio-essential supplies for capturing what I see. I started this when I lived in Chiang Mai because I couldn't walk five feet and not see something I felt desperate to paint.    I would set up my portable studio at a tea stall on the side of the road and paint whatever passed my view.

I had a boy friend in my Taiwanese youth who broke up with me and  became a monk. So the sight of young monks anywhere in Asia fills me with odd feelings. I could not resist these young novices when they passed by. . And I wondered what lovers they were forsaking.

The Painting below-Sisters In Law, was painted when I was 16 living in the Pescadore Islands, part of a Taiwanese archipelago where I worked one summer in a clinic treating Leprosy. After a long day carrying boxes of meds to outlying villages on remote islands, I painted these two ladies waiting for the daily ferry that would take us all back to the main town of Ma Kung.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Sisters In Law

Li Mama and Mrs. Wu were sister's in law.  They were also best friends and shared many secrets. Both often confided to other relatives and friends that had they not had each other when first marrying onto their new  families, they would have died of broken hearts. 

~heading home