Taken at the crossroads

A couple of pictures from the main intersection just outside the side gate of the university where we live.

The vegetable sellers, Xipu

Was fortunate to be able to borrow a camera last Friday and over the weekend, and lucky enough to get some good pictures out of the deal.  My favorite pictures are generally the ones that require the least amount of verbal explanation, and this batch is no exception.  I'll be posting some of what I think are the best of the lot in the next couple of days.

I don't know much about art, but I know what I like...

...and what I don't.  And what I don't like so much that it ends up coming all the way around to me liking it again.  Anyway, rather than prejudicing you with any further opinions, here are some finds from a trip into town last Friday.  I'll let you sort out which ones work for you on your own...

Foreground/Background

Mostly about the color, these...

Red, Green, and Orange



Blue with bits of red, purple, and black


A big hunk of pinks, oranges, and yellows, with stars and candy bananas


Chunky blue, gold brown and beige rectangles, and grey.  And a white arrow!

A small place in a large place, and the other way around

Last summer, I took a four day trip to nearby Guang'An, to report on a few projects that my organization is helping with.  One of the people that we visited lived in a fairly isolated area.  As in, "Well, the main road is under construction, so instead taking you on a 45 minute motorcycle ride to the ferry across the reservoir and then hiking up another half hour from there, we're going to drive another hour to the back side of the mountain and hike for just over an hour to get there instead" kind of isolated.  But not that I was complaining - coming up through the woods and cresting the ridge of the mountain, this is the view that I got:



Right around the bend was this building, which turned out to be a small temple, build and maintained by the farmers in the area.




Here is a small hint of what it looked like inside, minus a feeling of dust, dim light, and the feeling that something was still happening that had been going on for a very very long time indeed.





I'm not going to pretend like I know very much about what was going on inside, or even if the temple was Buddhist, Taoist, a combination of the two, or something predating both.  I'm even reluctant to post the photos, but am doing so because, um, why?  The word 'continuity' comes to mind...

Wow!!

 

Photos cropped from a kid's talent/variety show on CCTV (China Central Television), around a year ago or so.

Texture Tuesday (Get'cher Multicolors Here!)

Texture Tuesday (On to the Reds...)

Next up, Picasso's Orange Period...

Speaking of history, now might be a good time to throw in some Rembrandt. More specifically, a copy of the Night Watch, seen in a storefront in the faux antiques market section of Chengdu. Except it's a little more like the Day Watch, isn't it..?

Texture Tuesday (Yeller. Orinch.)

Texture Tuesday (All hail Green!)