For Christy

Christy, we know you love Korean building color schemes - so I am sharing this detailed close-up. Study this closely so that we can apply the same scheme to our Asian villa in Nova Scotia.

This photo was taken at National Science Museum, located in Daejeon, a major city 100 miles south of Seoul. The bullet train makes the trip in 50 minutes. (And for those of you who have traveled in France, yes, South Korea runs the exact same TGV bullet train.)

This exhibit told me what the colors all mean (except for the green background, anyway). The meanings are as follows:

• Blue: east
• White: west
• Red: south
• Black: north
• Yellow: center

One more thing. North-south-east-west is the standard order of directions in English. But in Korean, the standard order is east-west-south-north in South Korea, and east-west-north-south in North Korea.

Personal updates:

• My road trip will start earlier than originally scheduled. In just over a week, I will start flooding this blog with lots of weird rural Korean artwork.
• I will also confirm my Hong Kong trip within the next week. I expect to travel there in early December.
  
• As a protest against the Repuke's negativity as shown in the McCain-Palin campaign and in California's successful gay marriage ban, I will be retiring my BMW when I return to Los Angeles. I will not only buy the Hyundai Genesis luxury car as a replacement, but I will order a vanity plate for it too. The plate will read GWAN EUM (Korean for Kwan Yin), and that will be the name I will give the car itself. I normally never name my cars, but I must take an exception this time. I've already checked California DMV for the availability, and yes, it tells me I can take the plate.
  
• During my road trip, I will certainly be on the lookout for automotive Kwan Yin ornaments, in the form of either a dashboard figurine or a necklace hanging from the rearview mirror. If I am gonna name my car after Kwan Yin, I better have ornaments to that effect. And yes, Kwan Yin is the Goddess of Safe Voyages as well, at least in southern China.
• Expect photos when I get the ornaments, when I get the car, and when I get the vanity plate.
  

YES WE DID!

Political Superhero Poster

Happy Birthday, Christy

RAPHAEL

The Woman with the Unicorn - Raphaelo Sanxio

Oil on wood, this painting was done in 1505 by an artist who is better known as Raphael.  Now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

Korea update

Everyone,

I am back in Seoul as of two days ago, and I intend to stick around into the New Year, except for maybe 3-4 nights in Hong Kong sometime in December.

I have just made reservations for my road trip. I will have a midsize car (I asked for a Hyundai Sonata) for eight days, starting three weeks from now; since Korean drivers are bullies and the size/price tag of your car means everything, I need to get a needlessly big car, just so that BMW drivers, SUV drivers, and truckers won't shove me over. Nevertheless, since I want to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, and since I am making point-to-point journeys outside large cities, driving makes a lot of sense.

This will be my first drive on the Eurasian landmass, and I look forward to it.

I will report on lots of Korean art from my drive. The following are on my agenda, in the order that I will most likely visit them, where I'll be reporting on art:

• Hwajinpo, north of Sokcho, Gangwon Province. This is a lake next to the Sea of Japan, and is the northernmost beach resort in South Korea. It's so scenic that Kim Il-sung built a vacation home there when North Korea was founded; when South Korea captured the area during the war, President Syngman Rhee built another vacation home there. My father's family frequently vacationed here as well, because this was as close as they could get to their North Korean home (without actually entering North Korea, anyway).
  
• Naksansa, Yangyang, Gangwon Province. It's mostly destroyed and being rebuilt, but as a temple dedicated to our transgender matron saint Kwan Yin, with a stone statue of her overlooking the Sea of Japan, I must stop by.
• Ojukheon, Gangneung, Gangwon Province. It's the home of neo-Confucian philosopher Yi Yi and his mother Shin Saimdang. The two grace the 5,000-won and next year's 50,000-won banknotes respectively; Shin Saimdang is the first woman to grace a South Korean banknote. (Actually, there was a generic mother who was on a 1962 banknote, but that one only lasted 24 days!) I hate neo-Confucians, but I'll stop anyway and report.
• Hahoe Folk Village, Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. Nice old-fashioned traditional nobility village, best known for mask dances but offering lots more.
• Gyeongju, the ancient capital full of Buddhist relics. I will spend three nights there. Remember that delicate stone pagoda I shared when I initially announced my travel plans? It's right there.
• Haeinsa, Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. Home of Tripitaka Koreana.
• Beopjusa, Mt. Songnisan, North Chungcheong Province. It's famous for a huge bronze Maitreya Buddha, and also known as a place where Bruce Lee shot a movie shortly before death.
• Ganghwa Island, City of Incheon. Lots of ancient dolmens there, as well as royal-era defensive structures used to defend isolationist Korea against French and American intruders in the 1860s.
• A DMZ observatory where I can look across a river into North Korea, just a mile away. It has some exhibits that allow me to experience the life of a modern-day North Korean.
• Independence Hall, Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. Mostly historical artifacts dealing with the Japanese colonial rule, though I might find some art to share here.
• Korean Folk Village, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. It's a living museum where I can experience all sorts of stuff and buy art and handicraft. My writing mentor Gayle Brandeis used the Folk Village as a key setting in her first novel, The Book of Dead Birds, so I will look for a few souvenirs to give to her.

South Korea may be compact, but my eight-day car rental may still not be enough. I may cut out a destination or two. I may also add some other destination in the unlikely case that I have leftover time.

Looking forward to giving you more great Korean art!

Goya Self Portraits

Chronology?

New Shepard Fairey Poster

The new one sold out in a few hours. The poster below is the one I bought earlier, which is now a collector's item since it it out of print.

Bill Henson Photographs

Australian PM labels this "Revolting"

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema 1836-1912

The Roman Potter

Maria Magdeline

The Artists Model

In case yall are wondering where I am...

As I stated before I am working on a stained glass project and so far it is....Let me put it this way:

ARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!

I have realized I am suffering from low morale and I may have to break out the chocolate I have been hiding from the kids to make myself feel better. I love art, but it does not always love me back. Who knew a piece of glass could be a brick wall?

Sorry about the slow posting, I am here, just distracted.

WTF?

Australia to implement mandatory internet censorship

Link Here

One of my all-time favourites!

I don't know why I love this one.  Perhaps because it's a beautifully simple painting of the very ordinary.  For some reason it always makes me smile.

Hellenistic

Gaul killing himself and his wife or 'The Galacian Suicide'

230-20 BC

Chillin

Cedric and his killer pitbull.

Brittany and Christian playing poker. (I won! Cleaned them out!)

Titian

Because We Are All Having A Crappy Week Already

A brief pause

Everyone,

Be advised that my stream of art photos from South Korea will stop briefly.

Later this week, I am returning to Los Angeles, to take care of a few items at work that require my in-person attention. But as my meditation regimen is far from over, this return will only be temporary. As soon as I am able, and most likely before Election Day, I will be back in Seoul to continue where I left off.

At that time, I will be even more aggressive in chasing down all kinds of art all over South Korea. As my meditation will continue at a slower pace, I will have more time to travel - and that means I will finally get to drive over to Gyeongju, the ancient capital. (Remember when I initially announced my travel plans - and previewed the most delicate stone pagoda you've ever seen?)

As for voting in the elections, there will be a way for me to vote - though it will be far from graceful, and possibility of tampering exists. I will have to fax in my marked sample ballot to the Los Angeles County registrar (I must also include a sworn affidavit with signature in that fax), where a poll worker will transcribe my votes onto a real ballot. There is a good chance that my "No" vote on the California gay marriage ban will be "mistakenly" transcribed as a "Yes" vote, "in the name of God" - while this is unlikely in San Francisco, it's very possible in heavily Catholic Los Angeles. I do expect my vote for Obama-Biden to count properly, however. But even with this, I must vote; it will otherwise be a disgrace for the South Korean President and the Moonies to spend billions of dollars (the very US dollars that South Korean banks and businesses need) buying votes in America, and for me to not cast my vote at all.

Looking forward to giving you several more months of great Korean art.

UPDATE: I will most likely visit Hong Kong as well, when I come back to Seoul. Flying 15+ hours from Los Angeles for just a few nights in Hong Kong is a lunacy, but flying a few hours from Seoul makes a lot more sense. Besides, when Seoul freezes, Hong Kong will really help. Also, if I stick around in South Korea for too long, the McCarthyism will poison me, so I need to step away once in a while! Expect some Cantonese art if/when I get to Hong Kong.

Ally..

I edited your posts to remove political content.

Please keep the focus on art. Politics is relevent, but only as context or explanation to specific pieces.

Love you. Party on.

Still too PO'd to sleep

On a lighter subject:

The complete box set collection of Ally McLesbian! You can't get these in the US and Canada due to copyright issues over all the music used in the show. But outside North America, the copyright issues have been settled, so they are available. These are Region 3, NTSC, applicable to South Korea and Taiwan. At home, I have the British box sets, which are Region 2, PAL; I have a code-free DVD player with PAL-to-NTSC converter at home, so I can play them.