18 November 2016
A great joy to be found in the researching and collecting of Chinese art is the sheer depth of history and symbolism found in the subject. Chinese art has evolved from over 10,000 years of continuous cultural development and over 3,500 years of written records. The visual language itself is so rich, even seemingly mundane artworks incorporating the written language can become steeped in symboli...
11 November 2016
In the year 14 BCE a young Phoenician named Pelles celebrated his 19th birthday just like he spent most days – working in his father’s glass studio on the outskirts of Sidon. Yet, something was amiss. He failed to notice the loud arguing voices in the distance, until he was grabbed from behind and dragged outside. His father was shouting at a tall man clothed in fine robes who ...
04 November 2016
What comes to mind when you think of traditional Chinese art? Is it porcelain, calligraphy, scholar's rocks or jade carvings? A category of artwork all too often overlooked is Chinese rugs. Surprisingly, there has been little historical documentation of wool weaving traditions in China. Despite the international trade that flourished for centuries, rugs and carpets were rarely exported. T...
28 October 2016
Part of what makes calligraphy an art form is the spiritual and disciplinary aspects of the practice, which extend back to the days when writing was a form of devotional training for young monks. They would spend days reproducing Confucian and Buddhist texts by copying the contents word for word. Above all, calligraphy masters preach the importance of achieving a state of “nothingnes...
21 October 2016
What happens when we draw our final breath? Nobody really knows, except perhaps the dead. Death has fascinated the living for thousands of years. Burials, one of humankind’s earliest rituals, provide evidence of reverence for the dead and whatever lay beyond. Some cultures believe in heaven and hell. Others believe in reincarnation. Whatever any particular culture believes abo...
13 October 2016
Globalization – the term describing free trade, cultural integration, vanishing borders and accessible communication throughout the world – is surprisingly modern. Coined in 1983 by Theodore Levitt, a marketing professor at the Harvard Business School, it considers the exponential influence of advancements in technology and the expansion of the internet. It’s hard to belie...
07 October 2016
Our earliest ancestors lived much like wild beasts, scavenging and hunting when they were hungry. They also walked for miles in search of food and water and then left when either ran out. Revolutionary changes in human behavior came about when bright souls across the world realized settled life was possible through farming and domesticating animals. They also realized pottery vessels could...
29 September 2016
They called him The Digger, Diggy for short. It was an apt nickname considering his peculiar hobby – digging. As a child he dug countless craters in his parent’s garden and didn’t stop until he had pock-marked the lawns of all his relatives. As an adult, friends couldn’t invite him to their homes lest he sneak into their backyards, regardless of the season, with a ti...
23 September 2016
The U.S. presidential election is heading toward a finale and two faces are on newspapers and television screens all over the world. Will Donald Trump become the most unconventional and unpredictable U.S. president the world has ever known? Or will Hillary Clinton make history as the first woman President of the United States? The concept of men exclusively holding positions of power has r...
19 August 2016
Sometimes, a blank canvas can be utterly intimidating to an artist. In response to viewing this void another void is created, and in it nothing may come to mind, the hand freezes, and time seems to stop. Calligrapher Seiran Chiba had this experience when her calligraphy master passed away and she was left for the first time with no guiding figure. For days she sat in front of a blank sheet...