This is really my 18th trip to China focusing on art, but I did not do a diary on my last trip. I had computer problems beginning on the third day, which could not be readily fixed, and the whole purpose of the diary is to put down my thoughts contemporaneously. On my last trip I did not go to Boshan to blow and slump glass to create new glass sculptures. Rather, I focused on doing installations in the studio for Art Encounters 2011, a multifaceted arts week planned for the fall of 2011 at the 798 Exhibition Center. I was the only American artist invited to participate. It is an exciting concept marrying many of the arts in a long weekend: symphonic music, chamber music, ballet, Mongolian throat singers, new plays, poetry readings, choral music, participation dancing, etc. As I write this diary I was advised that the sponsors were unable to obtain financing sufficient for this major undertaking on such short notice and there will be a mini festival in Chou Shang Di next week and I was asked to contribute some works to that festival. Preparing for this show was lots of work and I enjoyed creating the installations, even if they will not be used until next spring.
Leslie accompanied me for part of my stay and after socializing with friends in Beijing we went to Outer Mongolia for a week. Beijing is extremely crowded and bustling. In the South Gobi desert, there are no people and beautiful but very stark scenery. The capital, Ulanbator, is ugly, with horrific traffic jams. In the winter, 70% of the population lives in the capital. When the weather gets nicer the herders return and the population is 50 to 60% less in the city. Outside of the capital, the sky is a brilliant blue.
The South Gobi desert is essentially a large plain with just enough vegetation to support sheep, goats, wild horses and camels. Outside the main city, there are no roads as we know it. It is quite easy to get lost and our driver who has lived in this area for 45 years often got lost because new arroyos forced him to change his route and there are very few landmarks to guide you. If you like to hike and are not interested in fancy museums and chic restaurants, Outer Mongolia, which is fiercely independent and a thriving democracy, can be an interesting place to visit. But it's not Paris.
Day 1
The person next to me on the flight over was crying from the time she got on the plane. When I inquired if she was okay, she asked if I wanted to hear her tale of woe. She had a young teenaged child by a prior marriage, whose husband had died suddenly. She met a doctor who lives in New Jersey and they were madly in love. About 2 years ago she noticed some unusual lumps on his stomach, but the cancer was in remission until a few weeks ago. The day before the flight, he told her that he wanted to suffer alone and ordered her and her child to go back to China. He drove them to the airport and purchased the tickets for the flight leaving the next day. When she boarded the flight she immediately called him and was sobbing away during the entire conversation. At takeoff the stewardess asked her to turn off her cell phone.
It was clear and sunny in Beijing. The sky was a beautiful blue and the air was crisp. But it was not the vibrant blue of the Mongolian sky. After my usual stop at Jenny Lu's to stock up on breakfast food, wine and cheese with some good French bread it was off to the studio. Because I have locked up the studio and taken the keys from Huang, there was plenty of electricity and everything was in order, although still dusty. Later, the outside lights were causing a short circuit turning off all the lights in the studio. I noticed there was no coal and called Lau Sheng. Although his electric bicycle was stored in the furnace building, he indicated to me that it was too early to buy coal. But the nights are very cool and I wanted to have coal here so that I wouldn't have to resort to a multitude of blankets and a comforter to keep you warm. I also called Li Kogen about the short circuits still being caused by a malfunction in the outside lights and he said he would come over to take care of it on Wednesday.
After unpacking I decided to take a walk. I said hello to Xing and Jing, two painters who live right around the corner. I then bumped into Laurens Tans, who was feverishly trying to meet a deadline to finish his catalog for an upcoming show in Korea. As we were talking Cindy came by and told us about a preview for an upcoming dance show that was going to be performed at one of the studios in 318 at 6:30 PM. I was very tired but said that I would go. This is an international art community and I am the only international artist that is here at this time. Laurens said he might attend but was told that he had to be there promptly at 6:30 because the show was going to start promptly at 6:30 PM.
The preview was attended by about 75 people, almost all of whom were artists residing in 318. The studio, which was rented by a dancer, had the floor completely covered with black mats, with some padding under it. Laurens came in five minutes late but he brought some food he had cooked. The ten ballet skits were choreographed by a Japanese master of a type of Japanese dance for about twenty dancers from all over the world. He told us that it would be a successful performance if we did not understand what was going on. Many of the individual ballet vignettes were quite unusual. The first vignette was a ballet to Renaissance music but the bodily movements were extremely modern. Initially it was like culture shock, but once you listen to the music and watch the dancer closely he was doing everything within the rhythm and melody of the piece with all of these strange movements. Many of the individual vignettes had no accompaniment other than the grunts and groans of the performer(s). There were lots of interesting ideas and I found it quite enjoyable. After an hour and a half the preview was concluded. The master then explained that his concept was that body movements are much more important to his type of dance than the intellect. After everyone milled around for about 15 minutes and then on some type of unannounced signal almost everyone in the audience dispersed.
I went home and had a couple glasses of wine and a sleeping pill hoping that I could sleep through the night. I put one last coat of primer on 3 bases for some more Shattered Dream Series and one base for 7 to 9 glass spermoids. The combination of wine and Ambien worked. I was sound asleep by 9:00 PM.
Day 2
The cleaning woman was supposed to come at 9:00 AM. Oxy, instead, showed up so we had a nice cup of tea together and he wondered where the cleaning woman was. He made a couple of phone calls but the only person who showed up was the cleaning woman's husband, who was also a gypsy cab driver. She was not going to be available until tomorrow. So instead of using my electric bicycle for errands, I used the driver to drive me. First, we went to purchase a simcard for my telephone. Everyone in the shop recognized me and we talked briefly about our health, our families and what's going on in the neighborhood. Next, was a trip to the cleaners for my dirty dress shirts. I noticed that almost all of the equipment was from Italy. The woman at the counter explained to me that his equipment was so much better than the Chinese, that it was worth the extra price. Finally, I went to Jenny Lus for the groceries that I forgot to buy and picked up some wine requested by Laurens.
Then it was back to studio. Huang had to drive me to the station to pick up my train ticket from Beijing to Zibo. It has always been difficult to get tickets for the high-speed trains. It turns out that scalpers have been buying the tickets and then reselling them at a substantial markup. To solve this problem, the Chinese government decided that anyone who wants to purchase a ticket must show his passport or equivalent identification. In the past a friend purchased the tickets for me and I would take her family out for dinner to say thank you. But now you have to buy direct and to bring your passport with you if you are a foreigner. So off we went to the railroad station.
Huang was driving his brother's car. At first I thought his car was under repair. But, he then explained that Beijing had adopted a new regulation that license plates ending with certain numbers could not come into the inner-city on certain days during the week. The inner-city was defined as anything inside of the 4th Ring Road. My thought, which I did not express, was how would this affect taxi drivers. Fortunately, Huang has two brothers who are in the unlicensed taxi business, so they can work it out amongst themselves as they each have license plates that ended in different numbers.
I was able to get a ticket from Beijing to Zibo. But when I tried to get a return ticket, the ticket seller did not understand my Chinese and wanted the original ticket back as she thought I had ordered the wrong ticket. Rather than screwing up the ticket from Beijing to Zibo, I decided to buy my return ticket in Zibo. Later I found out that there are satellite railroad offices throughout Beijing which supposedly would take ticket orders for the high-speed trains. This high-speed train will get me into Zibo an hour quicker than the one I usually take, and that was extremely fast.
Jet lag was getting to me and I napped on the way back to the studio. I did some more work on preparing the wooden bases for some more Shattered Dreams Series and The Creation Series installations. I tried out a new type of gesso paints and they were excellent. They went on smoothly without using any water, which is what I need for these projects. Some cheese and salami on slices of country French bread with a glass of red wine was all I needed for dinner. I was asleep by 9:00 PM.
Day 3
I got up early because the cleaning woman was supposed to come at 8:30 AM. Li Kogen is coming over today to fix the outdoor wiring for the sculpture lights. The cleaning woman did not show up; Lau Shan did not deliver the coal or show up to cleanup the front yard. But I had plenty of work from home to do and I just put this out of my mind. I spoke to Oxy and the cleaning woman was supposed to come at 1:00 PM. I think he needs the money so he may do the front yard cleanup if Lau Shan does not show up. But it was a good morning to get work done.
I decided to go out to lunch after I checked out my electric bicycle which was acting up. I noticed the fuse was loose and very hot. So I took it to the local bicycle shop to see if he could tell me what was wrong and then fix it. The bike wasn't working at all even though it was obvious from the instrumentation that the battery was fully charged. He couldn't help me and I did not want to manually pedal this 60 pound monster for a mile to one of the nicer restaurants in our area. There was little local restaurant next of the bike shop that seemed very full. The owner of the bike shop said the food was quite good and it was very reasonably priced. I was also very hungry. Rather than trying to figure out what was on the menu, one of the dishes someone else was eating looked very good and I told the waitress that would be fine for me. It was a simple dish of rice with vegetables and some pork. I had my Chinese textbook with me as well is my iPad so I could study Chinese. The only available table was in the pantry area in the back of the restaurant, which also had a big community table which was not occupied and two sinks and a refrigerator. It was a simple meal but very good and the total price with hot tea was 9 RMB.
I got back home by manually pedaling my 60 lb behemoth and made arrangements with Huang to go to the bike store the next day to fix the battery. I spent the rest of the afternoon focusing on creating the steel wire sculpture that goes underneath my glass sculptures. I also finished one of the Shattered Dream Series. But after looking at it, I realized that the underlying painted board was too thin so I decided to convert a black piece intended for another Shattered Dreams Series to be the background for green glass sculptures, which would be very light in color, preferably with a white background.
Li Kogen came over and we decided to design an above ground wiring system for the outdoor lighting system as the underground wiring would in his opinion always short out my electricity because of the moisture in the soil when it rained. I previously had given him 500 RMB for parts to fix the existing system. He thought the materials for the new outside electric would be an additional 300 RMB. When he came back there was a lot of new equipment and he had laid out approximately 930 RMB which I immediately reimbursed him for. I asked him how much the labor would be and he said that because he made a mistake in the design of the original system, he would not charge me. I protested that that was not fair but he wouldn't consider it. He was and is a pleasure to deal with and he has pride in his work. They worked until 6:30 PM until the job was finished.
I then went to Wanjin to meet Lu Coral to go over some business problems they were having with an American art dealer. Jing Dong was still in Nanjing with his dying mother. She wanted to eat at an Italian restaurant. She eats like Leslie. We split an appetizer of roasted vegetables and the main course, which was lasagna. I was still hungry but I realized that eating so little was probably very good for me. Leslie and I often order an appetizer and a main course, which we share, so I was quite used to it.
I wanted to be home by 10 o'clock so Leslie and I could talk on Skype. I was very tired but stayed up so we could talk. Since I have a video Leslie commented that I was very tired and noticed a rash. Leslie refuses to get a video on her Skype installation saying that it was more important for me to imagine. But everyone in China, and also in New York, always comments I how pretty she is. Vanity has many forms. After we talked I went right to bed.
Day 4
I got up early because the cleaning woman was supposed to come at 8 o'clock in the morning. Again, she did not show up. Oxy, who is supposed to show up at 9, said he would follow through. Huang was supposed to pick me up at 9:00 AM, but as usual he was late. You learn to budget that in when you tell Huang what time to come. But if you have to make a train or plane it always makes me apprehensive to rely on him to come on time. If he does come on time that means that I have a longer wait at the airport or train station. But I would rather have that then miss my flight or train to Zibo.
He came an hour late and after two phone calls. Oxy showed up at 11:00 AM to cleanup the front of yard, which was an overgrown mass of weeds that looks terrible and was unfair to my neighbors who take excellent care of their front yards. First we went to the small industrial shop area next to the railroad tracks to buy some wood panels for more of my Shattered Dreams Series in a better size. It was then off to the electric bike/motorcycle store where they showed me that my battery was shot. The repair guy initially quoted me a price of 880 RMB. When I explained to him that they had given me a new battery last year and the price was only 500 RMB so I did not understand why a new battery was so much more expensive now. He went inside to get the manager who recognized me and we agreed upon a price of 500 RMB.
While he was preparing the new battery we went to B & Q,, which is like a Home Depot, to purchase replacement bulbs for two of the outside fixtures as a result of the prior problems with the outside lights. I then bought two new fixtures because we had installed five outside outlets. I walk by the hand tools section and could not resist buying more tools. In high school I worked at an old-fashioned hardware store and I always love shopping for tools and items that I need in that type of store. They also take Visa.
We then went to a bank because I needed more Chinese money. The guard and I started a conversation as he had lots of questions about America. There were only three tellers handling personal transactions and there were twenty people who had earlier numbers. The guard told me that one of the tellers had been with one customer for almost an hour. I started to leave but he said things should quicken up shortly and my wait would be no longer than 30 minutes. Huang was asleep in his car so I decided to stay. Five minutes later the guard gave me a new number 1072. Since 1069 and 1070 were being served, that was a pleasant surprise. When my number came up I quietly went to the teller. There were some dirty looks from people who came in before me. The transaction went smoothly and I was out of there in less than five minutes. We then picked up the battery and came home.
Oxy had borrowed my electric bicycle, without the battery, to go to lunch. We passed him on the way home and I could not resist rolling down the window and asking him if he needed electricity. He did not appreciate my humor. When he got to my house he commented on how heavy my bike was even without the battery. But I have had this bicycle for four years and that is some kind of record according to the people I know. But except for the battery problems it is a very well-built electric bicycle. Rather than continuing cleaning up the front yard, Oxy asked if he could help me assemble the new outside light fixtures. It was actually a two-person job. I was glad for the help.
He then went back to work in the yard and I went back to continuing creating a steel wire base for the three glass sculptures on a black background. We worked quietly until almost 6:00 PM. Oxy commented that this was the exact opposite of working with Mr. Zhang, who incessantly talks pure nonsense. And this was a nice change. Helen Lan, who now works for a mutual fund specializing in art, was coming over with her new husband. She graduated from Tsing Hua University and has been involved in various aspects of the art business since she graduated approximately five years ago. I met her when she worked for New York Arts about four years ago. She has bounced around from job to job, never finding something that she was satisfied with. But she says she likes her new job. But she always says that at first. We will see where she is six months from now.
Her new husband distributes foreign movies in China and they are coming to Los Angeles in November to see movies that the Chinese company may want to distribute in China. She has never been to the United States and is very excited to see Los Angeles. They were to come to my studio at 6 o'clock, but courteously called to say they were stuck in traffic and would be an hour late. I told him to relax and I would have a glass of wine and do some reading.. Instead, I updated this diary until 7 o'clock. Then I put on some good jazz and read a glass art magazine. So I did some more work and took the electric bicycle for a trial run and it worked very well except for the intermediate speed. I know just had a fast and slow speed.
Helen and her husband came at approximately 7:30. Since he was driving he couldn't have any wine but that did not stop Helen and I. They brought over as a gift of a 2005 Bordeaux from France. I hope I have a chance to try it out before I return to the United States. Otherwise I will save it for when Leslie comes over. They needed a favor and requested that they use my computer to e-mail copies of important contracts to their joint venture partner in Paris. Unbeknownst to me, this favor turned into a three-day marathon period. We worked on this project until approximately 9:30 PM and then Rex was informed by his partner in Paris that the images were not clear enough. He had to go back to his office to fax these images to Paris.
He knew of a very good all-night restaurant near his office and Helen and I would start on dinner while he did his thing. He would then join us and take me back to 318 when we were done. This was a high-end restaurant that prided itself on being open for 24 hours everyday. It was in a very chic modern building. It was set up more like a typical Western restaurant with a large open area rather then many small separate dining rooms. The food was quite good and Helen ordered a lot of small plates because Rex had a big appetite. Whatever we did not eat, he would finish. He joined us at about 11:00 PM and explained that this was a really big movie deal and his company had the exclusive right to distribute this movie in China. I was exhausted and was very happy to get back to my studio.
Rather than going right to sleep I felt like working on some more of the wire mesh sculpture for The Creation Series and putting on new coats of white gesso on board for The Shattered Dreams Series. At 1:30 AM it was time to call it quits.
Day 5
It rained during the evening and was still overcast in the morning. But I was back to work by 8:00 AM as I have lost too much time last night helping out Helen's new husband with his business problem. After a couple of hours I decided to take the electric bike out to pick up my dress shirts at the cleaners. But within 100 feet I realized that there was a major problem with the electric bicycle. It seemed as if it was braking every 15 feet. Since I thought it could be something serious I brought the bike back to the studio and called Huang to see if we could use his station wagon to bring it down to the bicycle repair store we had just visited yesterday. Sure enough there was something wrong with the wiring with the brake system. Also, in starting the bicycle the whole starter system came out. Huang showed me a way of starting the bicycle without the starting cylinder. I decided to spend another 15 RMB to make sure that there was a proper new cylinder for the starter.
The mystery of the motorcycle in my furnace room was still bothering me. Everyone was telling me that it wasn't theirs. But obviously someone knew that my studio was unoccupied most of the time and felt that it was safe to put their almost brand new and expensive motorcycle in the furnace room outside my studio. So I called everyone I knew and said that since coal was coming the next day, I had no choice but to report this vehicle to the police. The only immediate response I got was from Oxy, who had seen the motorcycle. He agreed with me that it was quite expensive but maybe I should wait a few days. While my electric bicycle was being fixed Huang asked me when the coal was being delivered. He then said that maybe this was his brother's motorcycle. This convinced me even more that I was correct in taking back all the keys from Huang on my last visit. I told Huang that I was not happy with his family's attitude that they could use my studio for their convenience and without my permission. He told me that his brother was very busy. My response was that if the bike was there when the coal was being delivered, I was going to have it moved into my studio, saw off the locks, change the ignition cylinder just like they were changing the ignition cylinder on my electric bicycle and use the motorcycle for myself.
When I started to take the bicycle out of the shop, it did not work. So I took it back and the repair man spent another 25 minutes fixing it. I was then able to do some local errands, buying some more wet sandpaper to do the final finishing on the new glass sculptures I was going to create next week, buy some garlic and zucchini to use with the remaining noodles for a healthy lunch and pick up my dress shirts. The bike worked fine although it had no 2nd speed; just slow and fast. When I got home I saw Qing and Jing outside and asked if they wanted to join me for simple lunch of noodles with zucchini and garlic in olive oil.
There was barely enough to go around, but fortunately Qing had eaten lunch earlier and was basically keeping us company. Jing talked about her trip to England where she spent four years but returned to China because she was homesick and she has forgotten so much English. The food was tasty and the wine was refreshing and after this late lunch, everyone was ready to take a nap. Although I thought I was tired, I wanted to complete a certain section of the wire mesh sculpture I was working on sooner rather than later. There was no nap in my immediate future.
While this was going on I received a panic call from Helen. It seems that all of the images on Rex's iPhone had disappeared so they needed to come back to my studio to transfer those images now on my computer back to his iPhone. They wanted to come over at approximately 7:30 PM to do this. There were many important images. Since I had no dinner plans as I wanted to work through dinner on my art, I said no problem. I also had some French bread, cheese, good salami and red wine in the refrigerator so I wasn't worried about dinner. I could only find about 10 images that I had downloaded although when we originally did this the prior night the program indicated that we had downloaded over 1000 images from his iPhone, including many movies. So I was going to be more than happy if all of these could be removed from my computer because I needed the space for my own images.
At 10:30 PM they were still working on the download and I decided to take a break and have some of that French bread with cheese and salami and a glass of wine. I put on some good opera and read an art magazine. They were doing their thing at the computer and I did not want to get any more involved. What had started as a favor had turned out to be a major inconvenience.
They stayed until approximately 11:30 PM and they were still not done downloading the images from my computer to his iPhone and/or flash drives they had brought with them. I said I was tired and it was time to go to sleep. Helen came up with the idea that she would go home and then I would Skype the images to her. I said that I had been more than generous enough with my time that I needed my sleep and they could come back tomorrow to finish the downloading of these images. Helen was quite upset that I was not willing to stay up for another 45 minutes until they returned to their home and then to spend another hour at a minimum to complete the download. I was beginning to get very cranky and suggested that they should promptly leave before I got very angry. I was tired and no longer in any type of accommodating mood. I was being pushed too far. I was asleep within 5 minutes.
Day 6
I was determined to focus on my work today no matter what. I was up at 7:00 AM and work ed on finishing the steel mesh sculpture. This was completed by 9:00 AM.
I also completed another shattered image. I found an interesting loose piece of colored rope outside my studio that I added to the piece. It is consistent with my philosophy of using something that no one else wants to create a work of art.
I then started on another steel mesh sculpture as the gesso and white acrylic on board had been completed. At the same time, I started some more gesso for the wood boards utilized in my Shattered Dreams Series. Helen and Rex were coming at 2:00 PM to complete the download of their images on my computer.
I was not going to skip lunch as I got quite hungry. I wanted to go to the new restaurant in the other direction from Jin Bin Wai as they have a terrific tofu appetizer that I had been thinking about. When I got there I was told that there was no room. So off I went to Jin Bin Wai. But they were also full and were not accepting anyone else for lunch. There had been to an interesting restaurant near the Orchard owned by a Japanese artist. But it had apparently been through a changeover, but I thought I would give it a try. I was one for three as they had room.
It now specializes in Haaka cuisine. I had absolutely no idea about this region's food, but I ordered one of the dishes from the Haaka specialty list. I didn't have time for anything else. I ordered a combination consisting of vegetables stuffed with some type of ground chicken or meat, eggplant and tofu in a very tasty sauce. I also ordered a side dish of rice. The rice was lukewarm and sticky but it seemed to go with the sauce.
I got back to the studio just before 2:00 PM and Helen and Rex were waiting for me. When we spoke in the morning I had asked her if she could stop at a certain art supply store in 798 to pick up the type of gesso I needed. But she didn't understand me, which was surprising since her English is fairly good and she has been working in various aspects of the business for at least the last four years. When they got there she apologized and I explained to her that I was running short on time and that since I had to be at my studio today and last night so they could solve their problem, I did not have the time to take my bicycle, which was acting up, to go to 798 to purchase more gesso. So what is good for the goose is good for the gander and I asked them that after completing the transfer if they could take me to 798 and bring me back as it was a lot quicker to do it by car than by electric bicycle. They said fine.
The download of the balance of the images took almost two hours. While they were doing that I was working on my sculptures and mixed media pieces. When the download was completed and they were 100% satisfied that all of the images were now on their flash drives or his iPhone, we then went about deleting those images from my computer. It was a dark and gloomy afternoon. The traffic was terrible but Rex knew all sorts of shortcuts which helped. He would like to know more about art and I suggested to him that Helen was an excellent teacher and he may want to focus on a particular area of art to start with. Helen thought that was a good suggestion.
Although it took me only five minutes to buy the gesso that I needed, I didn't get back to my studio until approximately 5:30 PM. I was very tired and took a quick nap before going over to Laurens Tans for dinner. I was to bring the wine and cheese, along with some crackers, and he was going to supply the cooked food. He cooked up a special corn soup that he was very proud of. It was quite good. The main course was chicken with peppers and pineapple along with rice for everyone.
His next-door neighbors Eugene and his wife joined us for dinner. Eugene is from Belgium and he is a designer. His big complaint is that no one understands anything about functional design and that it can also be art. My response was that almost all of African art are functional designs which are also art. I gave him some examples, ritual masks are staples in the African art field, I have a queen's bed from the Ivory Coast, which I also consider a work art. His response was that none of these were innovative. I then described a chair that I had from the Ivory Coast that was simply two separate pieces of wood that could be adjusted to various seating positions that was both functional and beautiful piece of art. He feels that the design industry in China is just getting started but it is gaining momentum. Both he and his wife had been up through the preceding evening designing a catalog for a show in Korea, which is the same show that Laurens is showing in. Fibe quietly got up in the middle of dinner and disappeared for an hour. Eugene's wife was out on her feet and she left to go to sleep. Laurens had been up since 4 a.m. working on his catalog. So by 8:30 p.m. I was back in my studio and very happy to get back to work on the next steel mesh sculpture and continue finishing the wood bases for some more Shattered Dreams series. I worked until well past midnight without a break. When I finally did take a break, it was time to go to sleep at 1:30 a.m.
Day 7
Because I was taking a different train that left two and one-half hours later than the one I normally take, I could get a lot of work done in the morning. As I felt pressed for time, I was up at 7:00 AM and at work 45 minutes later. I also had to get the house ready for the Chins who were arriving while I was in Shandong Province creating glass sculptures. I felt it was very productive as there were no distractions.
Because of my concerns about Huang coming late, I asked him to come at noontime. He came 15 minutes early, with Mung and the baby, who is now 8 months old. She is adorable. It was raining in Beijing and at first the traffic was quite heavy, but it started to move and I was able to get to the train station an hour ahead of schedule. This gave me time to buy my return ticket and to have lunch. There was a restaurant in the station that was crowded so I thought I would give it a chance. I ordered hearty Chinese soup of beef and vegetables. It was quite tasty although the soup had much too much pepper. It wasn't gourmet food but it was better than anything I would get on the train.
I arrived at the gate 20 minutes early and apparently the railroad had changed its policy. In the past the ticket takers would only let people board the train 10 minutes before it left. This led to a lot of hurrying and confusion. When I got to the gate I asked where everyone was and was told that the train was already boarding. My car it was already almost fully occupied. But I like the new system as you do not feel as rushed. The high-speed train I previously took is normally four hours between Beijing and Ziibo. This one is scheduled to do it in two and one- half hours. Its top speed is over 300 km/h but you do not notice how fast it is going unless you look outside. I wanted to go to sleep but was afraid of missing my stop. So I outlined sections of this diary and studied Chinese to stay awake. I did not go to sleep.
It was dark and rainy when I arrived in Zibo 4:15 p.m. The cab driver started telling me his life story halfway through the trip to Boshan. Because of the rain the traffic was slow and we did not get into the center of Boshan until almost 6 o'clock. It was very dark, gloomy and wet. When I got to my room I found out that the Internet was not working and the hotel guide only had instructions for Microsoft to hook into the Internet. But, I have a Mac. At the reception desk they explained to me that the person who hooked me up my Mac last time was no longer employed by the hotel and that the person who replaced him could not hook me up with the Internet. I was able to get into a Wi-Fi network but needed the password. But the hotel did not know what the password was and told me that there was no Wi-Fi in the hotel. They called Snow to ask him to intercede after I waited an hour for the repair man who was supposed to come. They apparently had Snow's number on file on the reservation form. He suggested that I go to a room that had a hotel computer. So I gave it a try. But, that computer only spoke Chinese and would not accept my password.
I thanked everyone for their time and effort. I was resigned to not having Internet access while I was in Boshan. I was also too tired to move from room to room in the search for the elusive Internet. After a cup of tea I tried it again and another Wi-Fi network appeared, so I gave it a shot. It worked without a password and I was able to use the Internet that night. By this time it was already after 8:00 p.m. so I decided to call it a day and forget about dinner and get a good night's sleep. Fortunately I was able to Skype with Leslie and the twins and respond to some e-mails from the United States before going to bed. Traveling within China by yourself is tiring because you're always afraid of making a mistake such as sleeping through your stop on the train station, not paying attention at the critical moment in the taxi ride, etc.
Day 8
It was a beautiful sunny but cold day in Boshan. After a hearty breakfast I took a taxi to Aimei. The glass blowers and other workers were happy to see me but they were somewhat surprised. I then noticed that my molds were not at the foundry or otherwise ready to be used. Chen asked me to see the Suns. Unfortunately, the son who I had made the arrangements with was not there. Although I was livid because this is not the first time that the son has goofed, I decided to say nothing. After 30 minutes they asked me to walk over to the foundry. They had a discussion with Chan, which I studiously avoided. The daughter asked me if I had written confirmation and I explained to her that in the past her brother had never responded so I confirmed it by telephone three weeks ago and then made my arrangements to come to China. Clearly, the brother forgot to tell anyone that I was coming but I kept the thought to myself because I did not want to make him look bad in front of his father, sister or any of the workers.
The Suns left and Chen asked me to come with him and we went to one of the sheds where my molds were stored. I wanted to use two molds to start but neither of them had been prepared with the clay needed to prevent the glass from curling underneath the form. After we moved those two molds to the foundry, we got out the China Dragon mold which still had the clay from a previous visit so we could do some work that morning. Chen and I both agreed that the first two or three works were never right as we needed to refresh ourselves in my techniques. Soya was not there and I noticed that there were a number of older workers who were no longer there, including two of the master glass blowers, but that there were approximately eleven new glass blowers, almost all of whom were working on very simple pieces.
Today the foundry had four colors to work with: white, black, red and green. So I decided to do a series of five black Chinese Dragons with yellow stripes to start. As expected, the first two forms were not good. The head was too small and the tails were too thick. By the third creation it was starting to look better. We were able to finish three black with yellow stripes Chinese Dragons before I switched to using a type of gold frits to replace the yellow frits. The gold frits give a very pretty result and have a different texture than the other frits I've been using. We did two more China Dragon series with a red base and the gold frits before it was time to go to lunch.
Soya showed up just before lunch but he had something else to do. By then I had worked with Zhou Seng Ying on five pieces and knew that I could work with him the rest of my stay. He took a lot fewer breaks then Soya and listens to the comments and suggestions of Chen and myself. One of those suggestions was to put in a twist or two for the tail to the Chinese Dragon to give it a much more dramatic effect. Soya did not join the three of us for lunch, which meant that he was not going to work with us that afternoon. The foundry breaks for lunch 11:00 a.m. so we're always the first ones in any restaurant.
The restaurant that we normally went to had been torn down for some type of urban renewal, so we walked about a mile in a different direction to a new restaurant. Chen asked me to pick out the food for lunch, which I did on the promise that he would choose what was for lunch the next day. The lunch was simple but filling. It consisted of two vegetable dishes with a small amount of chicken and pork, the fried fish which seems to be a specialty in that area and a delicious soup. It was finished off with local bread, but this bread was shaped in the form of a flattened hamburger bun. It was much tastier than the normal Boshan manbei. The fish are about four inches long and you eat everything in the fish but the part around the mouth, including the teeth and the central bonal skeleton. You use your hands. But it is quite tasty.
There was glass for work after lunch and even though four of the ten glass kilns were down, there was enough glass until the foundry closed at 3:00 p.m.. I used the same mold, which was the basis for Series 7 that afternoon with variations in the base color and the frits. In a lot of the sculptures I used the gold frits. I have seen their use in other works of the foundry and thought they would work very well in my sculptures. I also had done one with gold frits on my last visit and thought this had great potential.
Then it was time to go back to the hotel and have a short nap before I met Snow and his wife for dinner. They had decided to go to a restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. We had to go into a park and then up a series of stairs to the restaurant which was built into the hillside. If you did not know what was there, it would be very difficult to find, especially since there were no lights in the park. Since it was his turn to pay he did the ordering. When he was ordering I spoke Chinese with his wife, who speaks no English. She told me that their daughter had recently married and she and her husband had moved out of the house to their own apartment in Boshan. They were still actively involved in the business. She and Snow now have more time to travel. She was slowly starting to get him to go on one or two day trips on weekends. He seemed to enjoy these new trips as he was used to being a very hard worker. She also liked to go to their apartment in Tsing Dao because it was a much prettier city and she had lots of relatives in that area, including her mother who is living alone.
After ordering, Snow and I started a conversation in English. He said my Chinese had improved dramatically but he really needed to work on his English and looked forward to my visits so we could speak English again. He was enjoying the freedom of having more time to do things other than work and it looks like his daughter and, possibly his son-in-law, would be able to eventually take over the business. I explained to him that I tried to get my children interested in taking over my business, but they were not interested. His business has been slow over the last three years as much of his business is from the United States. But his clients in the United States have told him that things are looking like they're going to improve. His wife chimed in that she does not like Obama. He said that she knows nothing about politics and she said that to liven up the conversation as he thinks that Obama is a big improvement over Bush. I decided to steer the conversation into other areas.
We talked about their travel plans and he plans to come to the United States once he has shipped 100 containers to a particular customer. The customer normally averages 10 to 12 containers a year and as of three years ago he had received 78 containers. But in the last three years the orders from this customer have dramatically declined and he has shipped less than four containers a year so his plan for a trip in 2012 has been postponed for a number of years. Since he specializes in pottery, we then discussed packing techniques and the best way to ship fragile objects such as pottery and glass sculptures. He had tried the two box system and found that it didn't make a difference. The key was packing the sculptures in the main box properly and the second box was in his opinion a waste of time and money. He stated that the Chinese packing companies are very smart. If your goods or heavy they charge by the weight. If the goods are light, they charge by the volume. Since I am in negotiations for a one-man show in Nanjing, packing issues are important since they represent a significant cost. He is going to give me the name of a packing company he uses that will deliver door to door . . . from my studio to the gallery in Nanjing.
We then discussed family and the new Chinese rules on regulating the number of children. About two years ago if the parents were each only children, they could now have two children. Recently they expanded that to if one of the parents was an only child then they could have two children. But if both parents came from families where there was more than one child, then you can have a second child if you were willing to pay for it. That was the situation with Li Gang, my oldest friend in Beijing. They were looking forward to being grandparents. As she put it that is going to be her reward for attending to Snow's father who is now 90 and cannot do anything for himself.
They explained to me that China needs to do a lot of work in learning to care for the elderly as it is placing a tremendous burden on the family since there are no public facilities capable of taking care of people like Snow's aging parents. His mother is with his sister and she also needs constant care.
He was thinking of purchasing either an iPhone or an iPad, so I brought along my iPad. They wanted to see new pictures my grandchildren and they were whizzes at using the iPad. I just watched and sipped my beer. After dinner, I tried to get back on the Internet and was successful so I could catch up on what was happening in the United States, review my e-mails, etc. I do not know how long this Wi-Fi connection was going to work, but as long as it was working I might as well use it.
Day 9
It was another beautiful day in Boshan. But it was still cold. Although this hotel does not have a restaurant, it apparently has an arrangement with a restaurant to provide it with food to serve a pretty good breakfast as part of the cost of your room. Together the cost is about $27 per night. There is plenty to eat but you have to be used to eating what the Chinese eat for breakfast; hard boiled eggs, cold vegetables, various types of stuffed buns, soup and strips of fried bread and some fruit.
We were able to start at 8 o'clock sharp to work on more of my sculptures. We decided to use the same mold and do a series of black and red-based sculptures utilizing the gold frits. During their creation they look like they will come out excellent. But you only know when you see it delivered to the studio from the foundry. We were working in a very good rhythm and were able to do 13 sculptures prior to breaking for lunch at 11:00 a.m. It was Chen's turn to select. The dishes were quite different but all very good. The mile walk after lunch felt good and I was much less tired than I was yesterday.
We were able to work on about 6 sculptures when my stomach started acting up. For 9 years I have studiously avoided certain types of bathroom activities in a public Chinese open bathroom. But I had two hours to go and there was no way I could hold out for another two and a half hours. Sometimes when you don't have a choice, you have to do something that you always dreaded to do. However, I did not bring along with me an emergency supply of toilet paper so I had to ask someone if they had some extra paper that they didn't anticipate needing for the day. One of the guys said for an American I have great coverage. I felt much better and we got back to work. But 15 minutes later there was another "attack". So I had to borrow some paper from someone else. My stomach still wasn't feeling great and coincidentally at about 2:00 p.m. the foundry ran out of glass. I made it back to the hotel just in time.
This was not a time to think of food so I updated the diary and was eventually able to get some sleep. I also heard from my granddaughter, who was a Freshman at college. She wanted a certain type of granola bar that could only be ordered from Amazon.com. Since she was now communicating, I wanted to keep up the communications with her and was eventually able to get on the Internet to place the order. Then, I lost the Internet for the rest of the evening. I studied some Chinese and tried watching Chinese television but there was nothing of interest on the television. I tried to watch the news and understood some of it and realized that my Chinese may be improving but I still have a long way to go. There was also some office work to catch up on so I focused on that for a few hours. My goal was to read and work until I was tired enough to go to sleep.
Day 10
It was another bright sunny day in Boshan. The sky here is even a paler blue than Beijing. I got up early to try to get on the Internet. That did not work and the cursor on my Blackberry did not work. So I decided to rationalize and focus on other things. Breakfast tasted good but I ate moderately as I was not 100% sure how my stomach would react. The cab driver knew a couple of words of English and couldn't wait to express them. But I got to Aimei by explaining everything in Chinese. It was interesting: he spoke only in English and I spoke only in Chinese. But we understood what each was saying. He thanked me for listening to his English.
Today there were only five kilns that were operative. I also began to realize that when I first arrived it seemed like they had many more glass blowers and now they are down to about twenty glass blowers. However, everyone tells me that they are very busy. My sixth sense is that the father is letting the children run the business and the son is slowly ruining this business. The father is focused on designing new products, but if they treat all customers anything close to the way the son is treating me, I will have to find a new source for producing my glass sculptures, whether it is in China or the United States. They spent a lot of money converting from coal to electricity for the main foundry, but half of the kilns are not working so that severely limits Aimei's production capacity. They seem to be unable to correct the problem – the ceramic holding tanks keep cracking. Not only do they have far less workers, but I can tell by watching what happens at lunch that there is less comradery amongst the workers. Both Chen and Soya, the two highest-ranking persons in the glass foundry, no longer have motorcycles because their pay has been dramatically cut. There are also fewer people working in the lamp working department. Yet they rebuilt their headquarters building and almost tripled their show room capacity. But it just doesn't have the feeling of a thriving business that it used to have.
This is not the first time that the son screwed things up. In almost all of my dealings with him, something has gone wrong on his end, e.g. forgetting to tell anyone that I was coming this time, not paying the delivery people although given the money in advance, only seeing him when it was time to collect, having none of the graciousness or hospitality of the father, having little or no communications with the artesians who work at the foundry. There is only so much that a father can do.
With so few glass kilns working, there were only two colors to work with today; red and white. We decided to use a combination of the golf frits with other colors on the red and white base colors. The forms turned out very well that morning and it looks like the color combinations and those forms will eventually look terrific. Soya came by to visit as he has been working on rebuilding the headquarters building. His daughter is now 13 and she's even taller than he is. Except for having to cut back on his living expenses, including selling his motorcycle, things are going well for him as a family. His daughter is doing very well at school and he hopes that she can get into a good college.
This time it was Zhou's turn to select the food for lunch. The four things he ordered were all delicious. First, was a type of cold dish that I have never had and no one could give me the name for it. It felt, looked and tasted like an animal's innards It tasted good. Next was some fried pork that was quite tasty and this was followed by small squid in hot chili peppers and other vegetables. I passed on the hot chili as I did not want to take a chance with my stomach. Finally, there was a mushroom-based soup that was exceptionally tasty. As with all of the lunches, the traditional Shandong buns were served last. This time they brought out the traditional white Boshan manbia. I believe these are made from rice batter and they are each the size of a baseball. They have absolutely no taste but everyone in Boshan loves to eat these buns.
We were only able to get done five more sculptures in the afternoon before the foundry ran out of glass. What started out as a beautiful day became very cloudy with rain threatening. It was time to get back to the hotel before it started pouring. After 30 minutes I was able to get onto the Internet and catch up with everything going on back home. I was also able to update the diary and to download a book for my Kindle that was written by a college classmate about our time together in college. The, the internet did not work.
Hopefully when I try again later I will be able to get on. Instead I focused on studying Chinese. It was very quiet and I even turned off the music that I love to hear to enjoy the peace and quiet of a hotel room in a strange city on a dark and gloomy day. Before I could get depressed, I decided that my stomach was good enough to try dinner. Since it was bitter cold outside, I decided to eat in the local restaurant right next door which I knew was only fair. I had a interesting dish of mushrooms with shredded pork. It was surprisingly good and I was the only person in the general dining area, although there were some private parties upstairs. The service was incredibly lackadaisical. But I was able to focus on studying my Chinese while eating dinner.
When I got back to the hotel room I tried the Internet again and finally by pure luck got into the Internet after trying for over 20 minutes. First I put on iTunes and that somehow connected me to the WiFi. That permitted me to get on AOL and then after I was done reviewing my e-mails on AOL and getting an update on the World Series, I was able to get into my office network and Skype. There is no heat in the hotel room, so you shiver yourself to sleep. Normally buildings in China first put on the heat on November 15.
Day 11
I got a late start because I had a conference that did not end until 7:30 a.m. After a quick breakfast I went to the foundry. Everyone kidded me that I was 20 minutes late. My response was that this was my last day that I was making up for the missing time from the prior days. That got a good laugh. Again we only had two colors of molten glass to work with, white and red. Yesterday I had worked on interesting combination, all blue fritz and a type of gold frits on a white background. I thought the combination was promising so I decided to do some more with the same color combination. Then I substituted red and dark green frits for the blue frits and used the gold frits as an accent – my river of gold. I use my most recent mold and made a decision to then use the China Dragon mold, which previously had only been done in solid colors that were transparent. We'll see how it all comes out.
As I was completing the work, I was told that sculptures that we had done Monday morning were ready to be taken to the cold shop for preliminary finishing. However, they were still inside the cooling room where the only way to get in is to crawl. I did not want to damage the company's glasswork so I just glimpsed at some of the pieces through the entry hole. You really can't tell what they will finally look like until the cold shop has cleaned up the sculptures from the cooling dust and the preliminary finishing had been completed. Then I went to the headquarters to settle up. The son, who had not been there all week was there and we settled up. I made no mention of what happened on Monday that he forgot tell everyone that I was coming since there was nothing to gain and I felt that he was the type of person who would react badly. I did not want to burn my bridges with the Sun family. However, as a precaution I gave my business cards to Chen and a couple of other key people in the foundry. If something happens, I hope they will figure out a way to contact me as they are quite skilled and will land on their feet somewhere in the area.
Rather than a farewell lunch I decided it would be better to go back to the hotel, pack calmly and take a good shower and put on fresh clothes for the trip back to Beijing. In the past some of the taxi rides back to Zibo had been harrowing adventures so I wanted to leave extra time. The taxi driver somehow misunderstood my instructions and wanted to take me to the Boshan railroad station rather than the Zibo railroad station. Since the cities do not sound at all alike, this was inexplicable. I got her back on the main road to Zibo and again went over the directions and destination with her so there could be no further misunderstandings. Since I've taken the route a number of times, I knew the turns and she agreed to listen to me if I thought she had made a wrong turn. So off we went and except for one wrong turn which I made her reverse right away, we got there without any more incidents.
Just before we got to the station I wanted to find a place to get "xiao chi", which is a Chinese snack that I can eat in the car or at the railroad station. But the two places I went to did not understand what I wanted even though I asked for "da bao", which is the term used in Beijing for take out. Apparently they did not understand my dialect. Unlike the Beijing railroad station, which now let people board or wait on the platform well before the train arrives, the policy in Zibo is to let everyone get to the platform just before the train arrives. So there is lots of pushing and shoving to get through the initial ticket gate. They finally opened a second gate. I did notice that instead of opening the gates 5 minutes before the train's arrival, they now open the gate 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival. Once you get through the ticket gate, you have a fairly long walk to the platform, which includes a very long flight of stairs (approximately 92 to 100 stairs) to the platform. It takes a minimum of 3 to 4 minutes to get from the ticket gate to the platform.
I started to study Chinese and the person next to me was studying English. She was a junior in college and was coming to Beijing to visit her parents and sister. Although her mother is a translator, from Kazakstan, she told me that there are only three persons at her college that flunked the English proficiency exam and she was one of the three. Everyone is required to take English. So she helped me with my Chinese and I helped her with the English. Normally this trip takes four hours and the last time it took over six because some type of unannounced problem. She said she takes this train all of the time and now it is just over three hours from Zibo to Beijing. I was pleasantly surprised as she was correct. However, the traffic on the second ring road was horrific and it took me over two hours to get to my home from the station.
I was too tired to go out to eat or cook anything fancy so I had a few glasses of red wine and cooked up some eggs with salami and then I had some crackers with peanut butter and jelly. I was able to talk to Leslie on Skype and do some chores to prepare for working the following morning. That'll be my last full day in Beijing. The Chins, who were supposed to arrive in the early afternoon to stay at the studio for a month, called me while I was in transit to say they had a change of plans. They would not be coming over to Beijing at this time. Since I have coordinated a number of people to help the Chins, I have a number of phone calls to make and adjustments to take care of in the next 48 hours. The last second cancellation and its attendant inconveniences but I will have total freedom and peace for the remainder of my stay in Beijing.
I had another glass of wine and now I'm ready to go to sleep.
Day 12
So much to do and so little time to do it. Lau Shaun came over in the morning so I could talk to him about my coal requirements for the rest of the winter since the Chins were no longer occupying the studio for the month of November. I had already acquired enough coal to comfortably keep the studio warm for that month. But since Leslie had made it clear to me that if we took a vacation this Christmas it was not going to be China, I realized that the studio would be empty until at least the end of January. Lau Shaun said it would still cost me another $1200 for the coal and his services so that the pipes would not burst during the winter. I thought about an alternative of draining the pipes to save this expense since no one is going to be in the studio for at least three and probably four months. I told Lau Shuan that I wanted to think about it and we would meet again at 4 p.m.
I called Oxy to remind him that we need to pack sculptures to go back to New York today and I wanted him to leave some extra time so that he could work with me in winterizing studio by draining the water from both the heating system and all of the other water needs which were from a separate system. He said he would stop by in the early afternoon. Because I have so little time I decided that I would do cooking at home so I could finish as much as possible.
I was having a problem with the phone in that I would charge the battery and then one hour later the cell phone was telling me the battery needs charging. So off on my electric bicycle to the China Mobile store to buy a new battery for my cell phone, and replenish the SIM card so I would not lose my phone number for not using the phone for three to four months, especially since the Chins were not going to use it in November. I then went to Jenny Lu's to buy some pasta and sauce and some vegetables from the Chinese vendor on the 2nd floor. There are a number of shops and other activities now above Jenny Lu's including two new restaurants, a martial arts gym, an auto repair consultant, etc. There is also a custom suit and dress designer and next time when Leslie comes over I will take her to this shop where they can custom make a qia po silk dress for her. My electric bicycle would not start for the return trip to the studio. So I pedaled back manually, tinkering with the ignition system. That did not work. So out of frustration I hit the brakes because they had fiddled with the wiring at the repair store. That seemed to start the bicycle so what could've turned out to be four miles of manually pedaling a 60 pound behemoth, was 5 minutes without any physical exercise.
I then focused on completing a new Shattered Dreams series.
When that was done I did more work on a metal screen sub-sculpture for more of The Creation Series. It was time to take a break and prepare a simple lunch of pasta with vegetables and a little tomato sauce. I had worked up a real appetite and the food tasted very good.
After lunch Oxy came over and he first worked on the packaging of sculptures to take back to New York with me on this return trip. While he was doing that I was doing more work on the metal screen sculpture. When he was done, we then both focused on winterizing the studio. But there were problems. The outlet valve to the central heating system in the furnace room had rusted out. There was not enough space to turn a plumber's wrench to remove the rusted spigot. So I borrowed a chisel and knocked out enough of the improperly installed surrounding containing wall so that we can turn the wrench. When we finally got off the spigot, the water gushed out so we reinserted the spigot and held together with some wires while Oxy went off to buy a new spigot and some plumber's tape, while I solved a problem with the landlord. They told me they never received one of my semiannual rent checks. That required e-mails to the United States to furnish proof of payment.
We were able to install the new spigot and then drained all of the water out of the heating unit. It took over two hours for the water to drain out. I then sat down with Oxy and we wrote out a step-by-step close down and open up procedure so that when I came back in 2012 or someone else needed to use my studio, that person would be in a position to turn on the necessary water for both the heating system and the other water system for the bathrooms and kitchen, as well as the toilets. It was also a good way for us to know what had begun in the next 24 hours before I had to go to the airport.
Laurens Tans was able to deliver the two fiberglass figures which are part of his Happy People installation that I will bring back to New York for things I have done for him in the past. The video screens, which were loaded with the data were available for me to pick up tomorrow morning. Laurens also brought over some homemade corn soup because they were leaving for Korea on Saturday and he knew that I would be working around-the-clock just like he and his staff were now working around-the-clock. It always seems that the 24 to 48 hours before you leave Beijing there is so much to do and too little time to do it.
Oxy and I finished with the plumbing and other chores at about 6:00 p.m. I heated up the corn soup and had some crackers which we shared. I also made arrangements with him to periodically come to the studio to check it out, charge the bicycle battery, to arrange for the opening of the studio for finishing the glass sculptures to be delivered by Aimei and to handle everything if the Nanjing show goes ahead in January or February. It was time to get back to doing more work. Laurens called and said he had an emergency. There is been a change in plans by the director of the Korean art exhibit and he needed my video screen units for that show. When he comes to New York he will bring the video units, properly programmed, for the Happy People installation. He did not give me any choice and I understood, albeit reluctantly because the video units and the visual and spoken language is critical to the installation and what makes it unique.
I was extremely tired but knew I had to get back to work because of all the time lost in winterizing the studio that afternoon. I cooked up some more pasta and vegetables and had a few glasses of red wine. But my guilt complex got the best of me and I continued to work until almost midnight. The new steel mesh sculpture was almost complete.
Day 13
Leslie wanted to talk on Skype early in the morning and this was a good incentive to make sure that I was up by 7:00 a.m. She told me that there was a snowstorm coming into the New York area and there may be problems getting back to the city. After we spoke, I combined packing while doing some more work on the Shattered Dream Series wood panels and making sure that the winterizing procedures for the studio were being followed through by me as a mistake could be very costly. On a hunch, I called Huang to make sure there was no problem about him coming at 12:30 p.m. to take me to the airport. He advised me that his car was not available and that his brother would take me to the airport. However, my concern was that the brother's car was too small to take all three boxes, along with me and my carry-on luggage to the airport. I suggested that his brother come over now so that we could see what would fit in the car. Two black four door Buick sedans arrived. I had never met the third brother before. Sure enough we needed two cars. So we loaded up the boxes in the two cars and they were supposed to come back at 12:30 p.m. I did not want them driving around Beijing with my glass sculptures. I was also concerned that they would not come back in time and I knew nothing about the third brother. So I asked them to wait for 45 minutes while I completed the closedown and winterizing of the studio and we left at 11:30 a.m. I know this meant another hour of wasted time at the airport that could have used to complete the wire mesh sculpture. But I did not want to take any chances and my top priority was to get home as Continental was confirming that the flight was leaving on time.
All three of the Huang brothers are unlicensed taxi drivers in Beijing. They all have black Buicks, but only one has a station wagon. They have their own unlicensed mini taxi company. The oldest brother, who I had never met before, was quite nice. He did not speak any English. But we had an enjoyable talk on the way to the airport. After everything was offloaded in the lot, he helped me get everything to the checkout counter while his brother went home. I wanted to get Leslie something but I am always afraid to buy clothes if she is not there because I may get the wrong size. Also, the prices at the airport are astronomical. A silk blouse at the airport cost more than a custom-made qia pa silk dress at the tailor shop above Jenny Lu's.
On the way to the gate a guy dressed in a white silk cowboy suit with black-and-white boots and a big black Stetson started up a conversation as we were going through baggage check out. It turns out he owns an advertising media company in Florida and he had all sorts of questions about potentially going public. Recently, he set up an office in Shanghai, China for his business and he also has a tea importing business. He is quite a character but seemed like a nice guy. We had two hours to kill before boarding. The flight back was uneventful and the only delay was at the Newark airport because only one runway was open. We then had to wait for a gate. Leslie had driven out my car so we could easily load the sculptures and bring them back to New York City.
I suggested we go to dinner in the Ironbound Section of Newark. She was concerned about the slippery roads and had brought salad ingredients so we can have simple meal at home. Leslie is a true New York City woman who does not like to drive in the snow. I was up to driving back to New York. It was only a two week trip. I could've spent another two weeks working there creating more installations for the planned show in Nanjing and following up on meetings with galleries and curators. I had been so busy and with such a short trip, I was not able to visit galleries that were interested in my work. That will have to wait until the next trip.
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