Earthquake!

Last night I was laying in bed half asleep, and the bed started shaking as if a dog had jumped in bed with me. Then I realized I have no dog, and I wondered if I was experiencing an earthquake. Turns out I was right, a small earthquake hit. Most people I asked about it didn't even wake up or notice. I guess this is super common in Taiwan, and this one was just a baby. Yikes!

Chi Chih and Yoshi at grocery store

Chi Chih

 On another note, I had a really great dinner and grocery store excursion with my friends Chi Chih and Yoshi, both posing like nuts. We went to a place that serves only goose (plus veggies and rice), and it is fresh...all cut up right there at a table off to the side. In Taiwan, you eat all parts of the animal. This is a good theory I suppose, but difficult to get used to, and a bit chewy at times.

 And on a final note, here are a few more pictures of some more pieces that are half done. Time is ticking, I'm feeling the pressure!

Fish Sing for the Camera

 Fish sing for the camera. That is what this fisherman said to me (via translation from my friend Huimin) after catching many fish while I took pictures. This lake is actually located right behind our campus, who knew! It is quite beautiful, and you can also swim in it, but most Taiwanese people do not. Many think there are spirits in the water. Taiwanese also avoid the sun as much as possible.

 The fisherman reeled in small silver fish after fish, carefully took them off the hook and tried to get them in the basket before they flopped off the dock. A couple lucky ones actually got away. Watching this whole event was really quiet and majestic. I imagine this is one of the reason why people enjoy fishing so much, there is a real peace to it. We talked very little. It seemed better just to absorb the beauty of the lake and the sound of water and crickets.

basket for the fish

Thomas and Huimin talking to fisherman. They are grad students in ceramics, both here from Singapore.

 The next morning on my way to the studio, I discovered some creatures in the stream behind my house. Why are turtles so cool? They were sunning themselves on the huge lilypads, or perhaps waiting patiently for bugs. The lilypads are so big, they hardly look real to me. There are also a ton of carp (huge goldfish) that swim near the surface to catch bugs. The sound of it is lovely, like tiny splashes as they break the surface. This is especially appealing at night, when all is dark and quiet, except for their "blurp" sounds. If I wasn't so nervous about possible snakes lurking by (I saw a striped one in the street the other night, but was too slow on the camera), I would sit out there all night to listen to them.

plant?

enormous lilypad

Stinky Tofu!

Night Market

A cool thing about Taiwan is the night market. They are in many towns and cities on varying nights of the week, and they have a really great atmosphere of people gathering and enjoying the warm nights. There are food vendors of all types, so of course I had to try the famous "stinky tofu." It is called this for a reason. It is definitely stinky, kind of like sour food that you might normally throw away in your fridge. However, some people love it, so I had to try.

Stinky tofu, delicious?

well...maybe not delicious, interesting perhaps

 So now I know! My friends had mixed reviews, 2 yays, 1 nay.

Nice packaging! Santa Clause?

 

 

 

 

 So moving onto better things, the fried milk custard was really delicious. This is John, a graduate student in ceramics from Minnesota. He was so nice to bring me to the market on his motorbike, which was a blast.

fried milk pudding - this was GOOD!

 Another feature of the night market are the games, sort of like low-tech carnival games that partially work. I played a bingo type game, and had to hit the side of it to make the air machine work, kind of like the Fonze on Happy Days. The good news is, I ended up winning at this, and got this marvelous prize!!! Everyone in the studio is afraid of it, especially Osamu. As a result, I have been hiding it in strategic places where he will find it at random times. They all think it looks like Chucky. I agree.

My fabulous prize!

Very delicious watermelon milk shake.

More to come!

Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum

installation in the water park by Virginia Scotchie

Whoa. We took a trip to Taipei yesterday to see the Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, as well as some other galleries. This is possibly the best ceramics museum in the world. They have an enormous collection of ancient pots and architectural details, folk pots, contemporary ceramics and installation pieces, and currently the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale pieces. Where to begin...

Virginia Scotchie

Virginia Scotchie

I was in the gift shop and they had a video playing of the installation process of Virginia Scotchie's permanent piece in the water garden. That was so cool to see, but not as cool as experiencing the actual piece. This piece is so gorgeous, a perfect contrast of bright colors and playful shapes with the beautiful Taipei mountainscape in the background, as well as the light reflecting in the water. This piece really made me happy. Yay Virginia!!!!!

Back in the museum, the Biennale was overall a great show. My one complaint was that several of the pieces were from as far back as 1989-early 90s. Just my opinion, but I thought that a show like this should include all contemporary pieces. Here's a few cool pieces...

Gertraud Mohwald, 1999

Isobel Egan, 2005

Kyoko Hori, 2009

Kim Dickey, 2009

Mariko Isozaki, 2008

Catrin Howell, 2010

Kim Simonsson, 2009

This is only a fraction of the show. To see more at the museum, look at www.ceramics.tpc.gov.tw
or to see the show, http://www.ceramics.tpc.gov.tw/2010TCB/en/b.html
Good night!

A Few Things

So here are a few things I am working on in my studio. I sort of hate to show work in progress, as it changes every 5 minutes, and half of this might be in the trash tomorrow! Also, I usually put things together in parts after they have been fired in the kiln, so you are not seeing the whole picture. But for now...

Tomorrow I go to Taipei to check out the gallery I will be having a show at in November. It will be a 3 hour train ride, and I leave at 7:10am. So good night for now!

My friend Mei Yueh

Jill and Mei-Yueh

My good friend Mei-Yueh Hsu showed up at the studio today with big pieces of sugar cane from her yard. I met Mei-Yueh in South Carolina in 2005, where she was a graduate exchange student while I was a graduate student there. She is awesome, and a wonderful artist who just had a big show in Taichung County Culture Center. She showed me how to cut off the tough outside, and then we chewed up the super-sweet liquid sugar inside. Everyone in the studio loved it.



We then went out to dinner at a local food joint where we picked out 5 different meats/foods, they fry it up, and serve it to us with a glutonous rice. We also had a plum drink in a big bamboo cup. The food was great, but VERY rich with lots of fat. Something you would not eat every day if you like your heart.

spontaneous parade with mafia dude in front

Then out of nowhere, a small parade with a drum corps went marching by with a lit-up float. It is hard to see from this picture, but there were fireworks and a whole bunch of drummers. Mei-Yueh told me it was a parade for one of the local gods, and that in Taiwan they have many different local gods. I was also curious about the guy in the picture with a bunch of tatoos on his arms, mostly because I haven't seen many people with tatoos here yet. Later Shau Yu told me he was "bad guy", like a mafia guy. Yikes, I'm glad he didn't see me take his picture! Of course Shau Yu also has a great sense of humor, so who really knows...
By the way, dinner for 4 people was $340 NT, which is about $11.50 american dollars total. Crazy.

Mei Yueh also took me to a local restaurant last week, where we had octopus, clams, soup, bamboo, and a few more things. The food was lighter here, and VERY good. 

Mei-Yueh in front of her house

Tomorrow I will tell you about the night market and stinky tofu. Yowza!
Zaijian!