Day 1

Coincidentally Peter Lewis was on the same flight over to Beijing. Oxy is a big basketball fan. So I brought him over a Linsane New York Knickerbockers basketball jersey. Peter and I had a nice visit before the flight and it turned out that his seat was right in front of me. He had no inhibitions about putting the seat all the way back. The woman next to me somehow lost her wedding ring. So once the flight was out about 2 hours I vacated my seat so that the stewardesses could look for the wedding ring. They found it and the passenger was very happy.

The flight over was fairly smooth, but I had difficulty sleeping even with a sleeping pill. Since United has taken over Continental, the service has gone down dramatically and most of the crew had a chip on their shoulders. One stewardess explained that United is only interested in bean counting, and, as a result, the services have gone way down. She wished Continental was still a stand alone airline.

Something was going on right outside the Beijing airport and we were stuck at the exit from the airport in a perfect standstill for almost half an hour. Then all of a sudden the traffic started moving quickly. There was no visible cause for the tie up. After my usual stop at Jenny Lu's to get some food and wine to tide me over, we arrived at our studios. My front lawn had been cleaned up but the furnace was not on. It was very cold in the studio. Apparently there was a mix up between Oxy and Lau Shan in putting on the water in the central heating pipes before putting on the furnace. I gave Lau Shan 3 sets of eyeglasses, which Rose Chan had purchased for him in New York City. His surgically repaired foot has continued to improve and he is getting around much better.

After unpacking I did some more work on a mesh sub-sculpture that was almost completed on my last trip. When my Internet didn't work I wandered over to Laurens Tans studio and he told me that the Internet was out for all of 318. The rumors he heard was that someone had stolen the broadband line into 318. I spoke to Peter and we decided to walk to the new Hakka restaurant so he could have some soup to cure his cold and I ordered a few vegetable dishes. It was more than enough food. They have really expanded this restaurant with new "party rooms" in a hutong adjacent to the restaurant that it had taken over and renovated. The food on the plane was awful so I hardly ate any. But, I still was not hungry. I was ready to go to sleep and took up the portable heater to the master bedroom to try to make it tolerable until the central heating started to work the next day. There was no hot water in the upstairs bathroom and I tried to climb on the toilet to check the switch. The plastic toilet seat crumbled, and my foot went down into the toilet. Fortunately, I was not injured. It was time to go to sleep.

Day 2

I was unable to get a full night's sleep as I was waking up every 2 to 3 hours. But I wanted to get into a routine so I had breakfast at 8:00 AM and started to work at 9:00 AM. The Internet was still down. I came close to finishing the steel mesh sub-sculpture before lunch. I became ravenously hungry and it was time to break out the French bread, cheese and salami. After a quick lunch I tried to take a nap. No such luck. Peter Lewis came over to visit and I was on the phone with Sno Cao on making arrangements to come to Boshan to look at the new glass workshops. The past shipment from Aimei was an absolute disaster. Sun Yun Hao was supposed to ship the sculptures in late October. They were to be in 40 cm x 40 cm x 80 cm boxes and carefully packed with no more than four or five to a box. What I got were five large boxes that were basically pieces of other boxes put together by cheap tape for sixty sculptures. There were no markings for the top of the boxes or that the contents were fragile. Inside the boxes the twelve sculptures were packed with a very minimal amount of bubble wrap and tape. There was nothing meaningful separating the sculptures from each other. I unpacked four sculptures, two out of the four were badly damaged. I was very angry with Sun Yun Hao.

I was forewarned with pictures from Mr. Shi showing me the five boxes when they arrived in Beijing. This was an act of pure meanness by Sun Yun Hao, the boss' son. He had told his father that he spoke English so I was assigned to work with him. His English is almost non-existent. Everything else at Aimei was excellent, but he has always been a disaster to deal with. Prior to his father taking him into the business, he had failed in other businesses, including a delivery company, with Aimei as its most important customer, and his negative influence on Aimei's business was already being felt. While other glass factories and foundries in the Boshan area are working a 6 and 7 day week with full work days, Aimei is only open 5 days a week and on most of the days it has insufficient glass or orders to do any work in the afternoon. There used to be over 100 glass blowers. Now there are approximately 20. Chen and Soya, the foreman and assistant foreman of the foundry, had to sell their motorcycles because of pay cuts. I really had no choice but to find a new glass foundry to do my sculptures. This is why I had to come over this time and I knew it could not be done over the phone . . . a trip to Boshan was required.

Peter wanted to go gallery hopping and then out for a night on the town with the Jamaican ambassador. I said I would join him at the gallery in Cao Chang Di and for dinner with the artists after the show. On the way to the gallery we stopped at a travel agent so I could purchase the train tickets to and from Zibo. They charge 80 RMB for each ticket. Apparently they have to go pick up the tickets in person at the main train station and needed photo static copies of your passport to do this. I'm sure that this service is cheaper when you get outside the expat part in Beijing, but it is worth the price because to go to the train station to buy your tickets in advance requires half a today. The show was in the German gallery and I knew all the exhibiting artists. One was extremely powerful and angry, another very elegant and a third did some modern paintings with weird titles. There were lots of interesting people but I was very tired.

We all went off for dinner at a restaurant near the gallery in the Cao Chang Di District. Both were very near the Art Channel gallery and the Ai Ai Wei compound. There was a mixture of mostly German artists with their Chinese girlfriends or friends from Germany, some art curators, Courtney, the Jamaican ambassador, Peter and myself. Gordon, a Canadian who operates on the fringes of the art community was there with the young artist who was in residence in one of his projects. I sat between her and Alex Andrkinpour, a Swedish architect who is now working in Beijing. It was a lively and interesting group. At the end of dinner everyone was told what their share was. Apparently this was a very last-minute show and this is quite different than normal. I had no small change so I donated a 100 RMB note expecting change. That never happened.

Rather than going nightclubbing with Courtney and Peter, I decided to go back to the studio as I was dead tired. It was quite difficult getting a cab. But after half an hour in the cold I succeeded. The driver was a real pain in the neck and could not make a left-hand turn where we were supposed to. I suggested that we go up to the next main street to make a left and he started to argue. My solution was to pay him the 10 RMB on the meter and then walk back to the intersection where I could catch a cab that was going in the correct direction. There were few licensed taxis that were willing to stop so I ended up taking a Gypsy cab back to the studio. All the heat was on and I was in bed in 15 minutes and had a good night's sleep.

Day 3

I was able to finish the steel mesh sub-sculpture right after breakfast of a salami and egg omelet with toasted French bread and tea.



The griddle I use for pancakes can also be used to make toast. I did some painting on wood bases for my Shattered Dream/Exploding Energy (new name) series, as well as some steel work for my installations. I had a number of errands to run. First, I was to stop off at Zhao Feng's metal works. He was not there, but they were busy doing lots of bronze casting and some of the work looked very interesting and some looked quite kitsch or commercial. Then I rode my electric bicycle to the cell phone store to fix my cell phone which was not ringing properly. After fixing that and checking that I had enough credits in the phone, it was off to Jenny Lu's to buy some hard cheese, pasta and sauce. Then I went upstairs right above Jenny Lu's and bought fresh vegetables and garlic to make lunch.

Mung was working at the studio unpacking the glass sculptures. Almost half of them were broken. It was quite sad. It also made me very angry that Sun Yun Hao would do such a thing. In over 8 years I only had pleasant experiences with people working with me in creating sculptures and other artworks. This was the outlier. I made lunch for both of us. It was pasta with fresh vegetables in garlic and olive oil. We were both very hungry. She went back to work finishing the glass sculptures and she was able to work much quicker as I had refined the technique at the foundry so there was less detail cleanup work.

I tried to nap in the afternoon. Again I was unsuccessful. Peter came by an hour earlier then we planned as he wanted to go gallery hopping before going to the show at the Imagine Gallery. So I stayed at the studio to do some more work and start this version of the China Diary. In the meantime Lu Coral called and we decided to have dinner with Shenjing Dong at their apartment in Wanjin this evening. I was able to do some more painting on the boards used for both the Creation Series installations and the Shattered Dream series. Some of the new ones in that series will be named "Exploding Energy", which in Chinese is "Jing Bao Zha", series. "Jing" has a number of other meanings in Chinese.
By the time I walked to where the gypsy cabs congregate, I decided to take the bus to Fei Jai Cun, since the bus stop is a short walk from the Imagine Gallery. The show had an interesting artist who worked in two specific types of work. One group was a series of landscape paintings of trees in winter, which were superimposed with wood branches that mimic the painting now in the background. The second category used thin plastic, which has been cut into unusual shapes, with black ink designs. The painted plastic shapes were then attached to a white piece of plywood with pins. Latetia then used unusual lighting, which generated a whole series of shadows in different colors behind the painted plastic. She did a terrific job. I much preferred the second category.

It forced me to think of better ways to light my The Creation Series glass installations. I met a number of prior acquaintances at the opening. The artist was from France and there were number French-speaking friends of her and Latetia. It was a very nice show.

Then it was off to dinner at Lu Coral and Shen Jing Dong's apartment in Wanjin. They wanted to cook and I hung out with them in the kitchen. They work very well as a team together, much like Leslie and I do when we are preparing a meal. He did the cutting, slicing and dicing to prepare everything for her to cook. Unlike us, they both work side by side in the kitchen, while we switch in entertaining our guests in the living room. While Leslie is prepping I am entertaining the guests for part of the cocktail time. While I am cooking she takes over the entertainment of the guests. Since Leslie likes to clean up right after dinner, I am the exclusive entertainer for about 15 minutes. Jing Dong and Coral's solution is to do the dishes after the guests leave. Dinner started with a shot of mixed whiskeys. When Coral was not looking, Jing Dong poured his whiskey into her glass. He really does not like to drink. Before and during dinner there was this Chinese television series about two women leaders in an area of China many years ago. One was beautiful and mean and the other was just as beautiful and good. Jing Dong liked the program, especially the two beautiful women, and it stayed on during dinner although his back was to the TV.

During dinner Jing Dong asked me if I liked Chinese women and if I thought they were beautiful. I said that just like in America there are many beautiful women in both countries. He told me that he really thought American women were beautiful. Coral did not react to this with pleasure. I tried to switch the subject and she told me that I was very tactful, but that he was not going to get off so easily. I then said that he did this just to tease her because she looks so pretty when she is angry. That seemed to cool things down. There is a lot of work that goes into preparing a Chinese meal. The food was excellent and we all switched to drinking hot water.

After dinner Coral explained to me that she and Jing Dong were taking a large booth at the China International Gallery Exhibition, known as CIGE, for 2012. Leslie and I had gone to one of the prior CIGE exhibitions, which has all the major galleries and curators who are active in Far East contemporary art, including some major New York galleries. Two other well-known Chinese artists were joining them in the booth, which is in a corner location adjacent to where the attendees are having coffee and tea.







I was honored that she asked me to participate as part of the Coral contemporary booth. There is a big opening party on April 11. But I have a commitment in the United States on April 13 so I will not be able to attend. We watched some TV together and as I was leaving Jing Dong asked me if I would like to participate in a special cooperative show with two other Chinese artists plus him at the Zibo Museum in Zibo, Shandong Province. Boshan is considered part of Zibo City and is considered the major art glass place in China. I know the names of the two other Chinese artists but am not familiar with their works. The museum will pay for all of the transportation costs as well as the cost of the exhibition catalog. In its own way this was a very exciting evening, with the best part coming at the end. But I was still jet lagged and happy to get home.

Day 4

This was going to be a very busy day. Oxy came over before I had breakfast. We were busy organizing the day because there was a lot to do. The more I think of it, I realized that a sculptor using various media, spends lots of time locating and buying what is needed. I had to make a shopping list: the plastic inserts and screws that are used to mount The Creation Series in my studio and for the upcoming CIGE event at the China World Trade Center Exhibition Hall between April 12 and April 15, an electric wood sander that I discovered at Pratt's wood shop, stainless steel wire mesh, a new toilet seat, a new light cover for the back bathroom, since the old one had somehow come loose and shattered on the floor, turpentine to clean the brush used for the polyurethane, etc. Zhao Fang came over so we could go over some projects. The first project was to take the white paint off the backing inserts for the glass sculptures. He wanted 5 RMB per insert. I have over 200 inserts that needed to be done, and I thought this was highway robbery. So I decided to purchase a vice that would clamp on to my steel worktable and some more wire brushes for my grinder. Also he was not interested in using polyurethane to prevent the steel pieces that connect with the backing supporting the glass sculptures which rest on the steel mesh. So I also had to locate lacquer thinner. But we did work out a deal where he could make another 30 inserts. Each installation takes between 20 and 30 hours to complete and I just don't know how I can do it all while I am here in Beijing on this visit.

On the way back to the studio Oxy told me that Hegezhuang was protected from the urban development that was changing this part of Beijing. His reasoning is that Harrow, the famous English public-school, was building a large Beijing campus in the south part of Hegezhuang. We drove by. It is huge. Oxy pointed out that all of the signs were in English and there was not a word of Chinese. It really upset him that this new neighbor was so insensitive to the Chinese sensibilities.

Between B&Q and the local hardware and supply stores, it took us all morning to get what was needed. B&Q is a joint venture for a Chinese version of Home Depot where you can buy top quality tools and parts for a price. Oxy and I then went out for lunch at the local hangout in Fei Jai Cun, where the food is always good. We then came back to the studio and Oxy wanted to see how this new type of sander worked. He could not believe how easy it was to use compared to a belt sander where you had to snap on the sanding paper. We then installed the plastic inserts in the concrete wall with a special type of angle hook that we were able to purchase at B& Q that was made in Germany. Basically the hook looks like an L so that the picture wire is very easy to install compared to two screws in the wall. We also made new backings for some of The Creation Series so that they would have better on the wall. I then was able to spend some time putting on more gesso on wood for various pieces in process.

At 3:30 PM I needed a nap. The phone rang and it was Harvey giving me directions for a concert at the Italian Embassy by subway, as well as reminding me to bring my passport. It sounded like a lovely evening but I am here in Beijing to get my artwork done for the upcoming shows in China and I told him that I had to pass because I was feeling uptight and insecure about getting everything done before I returned to the United States. Also, I had never used the Beijing subway before and was concerned that I would get lost and miss the concert. But I was very tired but could not get sleep. So after an hour of resting my eyes I had a good cup of hot tea and checked my e-mail. I also updated the diary. It is now after 6 PM and even though I did not have breakfast and only a small lunch I was not hungry. How can one be a workaholic in doing something you enjoy very much? Time to take a break for some wine and cheese before I get back to work!

By 7:30 pm I was hungry so I heated up some of the leftover pasta. I had a few glasses of wine and was very sleepy but I stayed up long enough to talk to Leslie on Skype and then went off to sleep.

Day 5

I slept for 10 hours and for the first time felt rested. I was eager to get to work to start on the base for a New Creation Series. I was suspicious that the wood I was using for the backing to The Creation Series purchased at the local market. It was too soft and/or of too poor quality to properly holding the screws supporting the glass sculptures. I also set up the workshop so that Oxy could work in the back room cleaning up the metal inserts as I had changed my mind from white to semi-polished steel with polyurethane. This works better for The Creation Series. I was supposed to meet Grace June Young, one of my curators in China, but she called to say that because of her license number she could not drive in Beijing today and could we reschedule for early tomorrow morning. We are supposed to have breakfast together. But she has never been on time for anything.

So I gave Coral a call because she wanted to show me some galleries in 798. The driver came at 11:30 AM, right on time, not like Huang, who is always late. So I made arrangements with him to pick me up on Thursday to take me to the main railroad station for my trip to Boshan. We met at Lu Coral's apartment in Wanjin and off we went to 798. She had previously made plans to have Denise Bereford join us for lunch. Denise spoke about new projects and her life story. She'd been through a lot to get where she is today. As a result she is very active in the women's movement and a woman's right to determine her own destiny. This was a prelude to her latest project. She was using a special type of porcelain to illustrate her theory that women strived to have the whitest skin possible. My thought, kept to myself, is that women with olive skin and green or black eyes is a real turn on. But I did not want to debate the point since this was her theory underlying her latest women's empowerment project.

Her husband Walter, who I met on the last visit, has only come to China once. He is much more comfortable in Australia and Denise has the creative freedom here in China. After lunch we went to various galleries in 798. All of them are large and with only one exception they were "pay for play" galleries. In a few instances they have their own stable of artists but generally they make their money by renting out space to other artists and then taking a percentage of any sales. In this way you can bolster your resume. I explained to Coral that this was not the way I wanted to go and she is making an appointment with the one gallery that we looked at that was not in this category. This gallery also has very good connections with the art press. The director, Ms. Wang is going to make arrangements with Lu Coral to come to my studio. It was quite chilly although very sunny and this type of gallery hopping is quite tiring and not very interesting. But I look at it as a necessary evil.

I dropped Lu Coral and Denise in Fei Jai Cun and came back to the studio. I started working on the wire mesh for an installation to be shown at CIGE. In the meantime Oxy was working in the back room finishing up the grinding of the white paint off the inserts and then applying the polyurethane. When I inserted the screws to hold steel connecting rods between the base and the glass sculptures, the screws went in too easily by hand. Since this installation would have five glass sculptures, I was concerned that the screws and/or the connecting rods would pull out. After discussing this with Oxy, we both agreed that this could be a problem. So all of that work was for nothing and I will figure out how to recycle this piece of wood as part of the Shattered Dreams Series. We needed to buy good hard wood at a special market in another part of Beijing.

Lu Coral had some business with Lawrence Tans so she was in 318 to invite herself for dinner. Peter Lewis dropped by and so did Lawrence Tans. In addition, Li Gang and I had a nice but brief visit. At the same time my Chinese cell phone went on the blink again and I'll have to take it back to the same shop to get it fixed. Li Gang's solution was to buy a new phone. I do not need a fancy phone for the few times each year I come to China. After Lu and Laurens finished their business, Oxy, Lu and myself went off in the van to Jin Bin Wei. I was looking forward to Beijing duck. Unfortunately, no one else wanted Beijing duck so we ordered other dishes. Almost all of the discussion was in Chinese and I understood some of it. Progress is sometimes slow in learning a new language. But I feel that I am slowly improving but still have a long way to go.

I was going to work after dinner, but I was just too tired to do a proper job of inserting the metal inserts into the correct position on each of the sculptures that were not damaged in shipment. I set the alarm for early in the morning so I could complete the initial application of the epoxy on the inserts before Grace was to show up at 9:00 AM for a breakfast I am to cook. After speaking with Leslie and my office back in New York, I was asleep by 10:30 PM to be up by 6:00 AM the following morning.

Day 6

I was up at 6:00 AM even though Grace is always very late. Time goes by so fast when I am in my studio in Beijing. We were supposed to have breakfast together and I skipped my normal breakfast after I got up to do some work. New York saw that I was on the computer and my Skype was on because I was checking all of my messages. Apparently the website at the office had been redesigned so that the inbox look entirely different. I was previously told there was a series of messages but could not find them. Now I realized that everything was organized differently in my inbox section and I was only able to review messages for the last 3 days. After that I started working on completing a new Shattered Glass/Energy Exploding artwork of yellow glass on a blue textured board. At 10:00 AM I had a small bowl of cereal as Grace had not yet showed up. She came at approximately 10:45 AM saying that she had left her cell phone at home and had to turn back to get it. In any event she was almost three hours late which is par for the course. I gave her a small glass fish from Aimei as a welcome present. She gave me another of her watercolors on rice paper as a gift. It was a picture of a lonely flower surrounded by calligraphy of various Buddhists sayings and concepts. She then updated me. The Elegante Spa was reopening after a year delay and we rearranged our deal so she would be in a better position to sell the sculptures on display at this facility. My installation is still on exhibit at the Moon River Museum, but they took away the large floor piece because over time the glass sort of disappeared. She told me they weren't interested in me furnishing more broken glass for this installation. She then went over certain proposed projects for the late spring and summer of 2012. We will see what develops. She was running so late that she did not have time to have lunch because she had a 2 o'clock appointment in another part of Beijing.

I called Oxy, who was in the area and was finishing a job. Thirty minutes later we were in his van going to the northeast section of Beijing to get some hardwood for bases for The Creation Series installations. We felt that this would be safer, especially since I wanted to do new installations with five to seven fiberglass sculptures. Good wood in China is very expensive because there is a tremendous shortage of quality wood because China destroyed its forests hundreds of years ago. So almost all hardwoods are imported and they are very expensive. There is one very large lumber yard that specializes in quality hardwoods. It is in a new section of Beijing off the Fifth Ring Road but the buildings already look like they have been severely battered by the weather. This lumberyard was even larger than it was described by Oxy with rows upon rows of stacked wood in very large open style warehouse structures. It must be the size of ten football fields. We drove around until Oxy spotted what he thought was suitable wood.

Most of the wood is in 120 cm x 200 cm sizes. We wanted a hardwood, but not one that was so hard that it would not take screws. We also wanted wood that was approximately 2 1/2 cm thick. The yard we stopped at was almost as big as half a football field. First we went to the office, which is very small and saw some beautifully finished panels that were 50 cm x 200 cm., but the wood was too thin. These panels cost 265 RMB each. We finally found what we wanted and asked them to cut the panels into 3 pieces so it would be more workable. Also it would be easier to get three pieces into the van.

Oxy told me that he had his own circular saws and jigsaw and we could do this back at the studio. But they said they would not charge me for cutting it here so we went ahead with the cutting. The person in charge put down two small thin boards and then we measured the cuts. Rather than using a board as a guideline, he just followed his pencil line. One person assisted him and the third looked on, not doing anything. According to Oxy this was fairly typical as the third person was kept around for emergencies in order to fill-in if someone was sick. Although the trip out took almost an hour for some reason the return trip was only half an hour. There was no traffic problems on either trip.

When we got back to the studio we then cut one of the panels into three sections. We then used the jigsaw to round corners. My new sander smoothed everything off very quickly and I started to work on this sub-sculpture right away. In the interim we had stripped all of the holding units and wire mesh from the softwood base that we had decided to abandon. Maybe we can salvage that for something else by using the jigsaw to cut out an inner form for use in the Shattered Dreams series. I made arrangements with Oxy to cut the other panels into specified sizes while I was back in the United States. By that time it was almost 7:00 PM and Oxy drank all of the remaining orange juice in the refrigerator before heading off.

I was too tired to cook dinner and too tired to go out gallery hopping. I also felt that I was coming down with a cold. I did some more work on the sub-sculpture and some preparatory work on the Shattered Dreams series. I also sketched out some ideas for a steel dance orchestra which has been in my head for many years. This is a possible future project. I was very apprehensive about the upcoming trip to Boshan. I was ready to go to sleep at 8:30 PM but wanted to stay up to talk to Leslie and others back in the states. The next thing you know I was working until 11:30 PM on the sculptures and the sketches. I was also able to coordinate with Leslie on an upcoming notice in the Lotos Leaf of my works in the China International Gallery Exposition at the China World Trade Center between April 12 and April 15.

Day 7

I was up bright and early. Although it was very cold in Beijing the sky was a beautiful blue without a cloud. After organizing my packing and checking my messages on the computer, Oxy stopped by and we did some finishing work on some of the sculptures for the installations to be shown at CIGE before mounting them on the sub-sculptures, which are just been completed. After that was done we then worked as a team to complete the installations. The first one "Fish Meet in River" looked great right away.





One look at the sculpture was all that was needed to give it a name. The second sculpture took a number of attempts until we found the right combination. But a name did not come to me right away so for now I am calling it Red-Gold on Gray Board until I come up with a better name







By then it was almost time for the driver to come to take me to the South Station. In the interim Oxy needed to look at the computer because he had received some messages in English and needed me to translate them. Then Leslie called on Skype. I had ten minutes to change and wash up before the driver showed up. Wang showed up promptly at 12:30 PM.

It was a good thing that he did because we had thought that the train was leaving at 2:18 PM when it was actually leaving at 1:45 PM. It was totally my fault in giving him the wrong time and I apologized. There were a few traffic jams on the way and he almost took a wrong turn to go on Jinmin Highway rather than the Airport Expressway but we made it 25 minutes before departure. When I got there the train was already loading. I did not have time for lunch and the food on the high-speed train does not look very appetizing.

The gentleman next to me was Chinese who had spent a number of years living in Australia. Like many Chinese he thought that English was far harder to learn then Chinese. All you have to do is memorize 3000 characters and the grammar is very easy. I explained to him in Chinese why I disagreed and we had a good laugh. He was going to Jinian to visit his mother who was dying of cancer. He expected her to die within the next week and did not want to take the chance of not seeing her one more time before she died. On his computer he was watching the Bangladesh film, Slumlord Millionaire, which was in Chinese with English subtitles. Parts of the movie are still extremely funny, especially where the young Indian hero, with his co-conspirators, hustles tourists.

I was very tired but was afraid to go to sleep because I did not want to miss the Zibo station. The cab ride to Boshan is like visiting an old friend. There is very little change along this main road between the two cities and the sky is always overcast either because of the weather or the pollution. It is not very pretty. When I got to the hotel the staff recognized me and they welcomed me back. The desk clerk tried to charge me a four-day deposit and I explained to her that in the past it had always been two days and since I was only staying for two days there was no need for a four-day deposit. She agreed. After quickly unpacking and washing up I met Sno and his wife for dinner. I took a taxi and they had given me the address of the restaurant. Fifteen minutes later I was at the correct restaurant.

His wife told me that their daughter was three months pregnant and she is very apprehensive about whether or not it is a boy or a girl. Because of the one child policy and the desire of the fathers to have the family line be continuous, baby boys are much preferred over baby girls. Therefore, unlike the United States, the Chinese doctors will not tell you in advance what the sex is of the baby to prevent prospective mothers from having abortions until they have a male child. But they have very good connections with some of the doctors of the hospital and they believe that on her next visit one of those connections will tell them whether or not it will be a boy or a girl. I let him do the ordering since I know that he and his wife have very definite tastes. His business is improving and his son-in-law is doing much better. His daughter comes into the business every day out of boredom, but is too sick to work effectively most of the days.

He has been following the Jeremy Lin story very closely because he is a huge basketball fan. We then discussed what is happening in the China professional basketball league. Many people in China are following this story and they are very proud of Jeremy Lin, whose father was born on mainland China. They feel that he is the real deal. There is a third Chinese player who was with the New Jersey Nets, Yi Jinlian, who is having trouble establishing himself with the Dallas Mavericks. Cao believes that when he gets more confidence he will also be a very significant NBA basketball player.

In Boshan there are no public basketball courts other than what is available at the public schools. In contrast, there are eight places in Boshan where you can go and play ping-pong. He is in an age group ping-pong league and they play every Saturday. Although he loves to talk US politics, the Republican primary is of little interest to him. He thinks that Obama is much smarter than any of the possible candidates the Republicans will come up with, unless it is someone different then who is now on the scene.

He is still planning to come to America when he sells the 100th container to his customer in Miami. He hopes to be fully retired in the next 3 to 4 years and also wants to go to England and Canada again. Because he had to visit his father after dinner, I took a taxi back to the hotel. His father is 90 and suffering from Alzheimer's disease, but he is fiercely independent and wants to live by himself even though he requires almost constant care. Physically he is very strong and healthy.

When I got back to the hotel I tried the Internet and it worked right away much to my surprise. All of the instructions are for Windows systems and I have an Apple Mac. I just plugged in the computer and was able to get on the Internet without any password or anything. What a pleasant surprise! Unfortunately, Skype was having problems as all of my calls were getting interrupted and I could not reconnect. Yaro is coming from Poland to New York next week and we wanted to coordinate. But we were unable to because the calls were continuously interrupted.

Day 8

Since I wasn't meeting Sno until 9:15 AM I had breakfast later than normal. That was a mistake as all of the hot items were now cold. So I ate two hard-boiled eggs and some cold vegetables. The staff wanted to give me a knife and fork but after they saw how I ate with chopsticks they had a good laugh and apologized because they assumed that all Westerners would rather have a knife and fork over chopsticks.

On the way to the first glass workshop, we discussed what was the best way to approach my new partner. We decided that the less said the better as they would be focused on acquiring new business. The first place we went to specialized in small unsophisticated pieces and I was concerned about the quality of the glass. But they had an ingenious system of 6 kilns in the ground for the colored glass. So they always had 6 colors available. Compared to Aimei, this factory was very crude as it consisted of a bunch of temporary walls partially covered by a tin roof with lots of space between the roof and the walls. This would be very cold to work with in the winter. I realized that this would not be a viable alternative.

The second glass workshop we went to was entirely different. It was in the middle of nowhere down a dirt road next to some type of gravel mine. There is not a store or any other type of building within a mile. But I could see from some of the glassworks that they did much more sophisticated work. The owner, Mr. Zie, told me that a number of students from Tsing Hua University came here to study how art glass is created. He then asked me if I knew Professor Wang. I told him that I know his whole family and told him that we had helped his daughter when she was a student in the United States. But I studiously avoided mentioning that he had made the introduction for me to use Aimei.

We then looked at some of the works in a show room. They did the same type of work as Aimei and were currently copying some Jihuly type works, just as Aimei was doing. They work six days a week beginning at 7 o'clock in the morning and ending at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Because the workshop is so remote he provides lunch to the workers who are given one half an hour for lunch. This was obviously a better fit for my type of work. We advised him that we could return with my molds later that day.

Sno Cao and I then went off for lunch and discussed how to handle the situation at Aimei. We decided that I would tell them that I was taking the molds back to Beijing in order to redesign them so I could make better sculptures in the future. As to all other persons other than San Yan Hun, I would avoid mentioning the packaging and shipping problem. This was going to be a major change in my life because I was so used to working with Mr. Chen and Soya and we have become friends. But I felt I had no choice. We decided that I should call Sun Yun Hao first to tell him that I was coming to Aimei to pick up my molds. His response was how many pieces and how much did I want to pay. My Chinese was very clear and Sno commented on how clearly I expressed myself and he could not understand Yun Hao's response. So I told Yun Hao that we would discuss this further when I got to Aimei.

When we got to the Aimei, Yun Hao was not there. When I called again, he said he was "in Shanghai on business". Mr.Chen was out to lunch and there were no glass blowers in the factory, with one exception, and he was cleaning up. The furnaces were closed for the day but I was told that Mr. Chen was coming back. The only person in the office was new and she was much more comfortable if Mr. Chen was there to return the molds. Mr. Chen finally arrived and retrieved the molds. The public version was that I was taking them back to Beijing. I asked him for his phone number so we could keep in touch. Rather than calling me so I could put the number directly on my cell phone he said he was going inside to write it out for me. What I had not noticed was that Yao Hun's older sister and wife had arrived and were outside of the main headquarters building looking at us. It was very difficult to do what I was doing but I did not let on to Mr. Chen that I found another workshop in the Boshan area to work with. But I think he sensed what was really happening.

The sister and wife then asked me how things were going and we made small talk. They finally asked me what I was doing at Aimei and I told them that I had come to pick up my molds to take them back to Beijing to redesign so I could make better sculptures in the future. I hoped that I could make the switch of glass workshops without hurting anyone's feelings. I was fully confident that Yun Hao had not communicated my disappointment with his horrific packaging and shipment of my sculptures. I had not yet told him that almost 50% of the shipment had been smashed. I may never tell him because it is time to move on. In contrast, Mr. Xie, like the elder Mr. Sun, seems to understand that it is important to treat your customers nicely. Mr. Xie volunteered an apology for not taking us to lunch. What a contrast to Sun Yun Hao, the son of Mr. Sun! We then took the molds back to the Bai Sheng glass factory. I felt that I was beginning a new chapter in my life in China and I look forward to working with Mr. Xie and his people.

Near the hotel I stopped to buy some needed items in a small local store. One item that I wanted was a brush to clean my nails. At first they had trouble understanding me but then advised me that they had no such item. Back at the hotel I put on some classical music on the computer. I was asleep in 20 seconds and slept for over 3 hours. I did not realize that I was that tired. Then I got up to update my China Diary and to meditate on what was happening and what had happened in Boshan. By nature I am resistant to change of this type. Leslie chides me that I am unable to fire any employee unless pushed beyond limit. That was the case with Aimei, as the son of the founder had made this such an unpleasant experience notwithstanding that every other aspect of dealing with this company was terrific. But when it came to the packaging, shipping and payment those were all entrusted to Sun Yun Hao, and he was not competent and disrespectful of everyone else. It got to the point where this was no longer an enjoyable experience. So it is time to move on.

After my nap, I studied some Chinese, did some office work and finally decided to go out for a quick dinner. It was very cold outside and the restaurant to the left of the hotel was closed and apparently out of business. The food and the atmosphere at the restaurant immediately to the right of the hotel was very poor so I decided to go back to my hotel room as I decided I was not hungry. I did some reading and then went to sleep because I was getting up early in the hope of catching an earlier train back to Beijing.

Day 9

After a hearty breakfast because I did not know if I would be able to have lunch, it was off to the Zibo railroad station. The taxi driver and I had a nice conversation in Chinese. She had been driving a taxi for 4 years and now earned more money then her husband. But they wanted to save as much as possible before she had a child. The pollution between Boshan and Zibo was especially bad. When I got to the station there was a ticket available for a train that left two hours earlier. But when I asked the ticket seller if I can get a refund re: partial credit for the later ticket, he said he had to speak to a superior. By the time the superior came over, the last ticket for that train had been sold and there were no more seats available.

Since I had a five-hour wait I found a hotel with a tea/coffee bar to hang out. I had a nice view of Prof. Wang's sculpture in front of the railroad station. I was able to study Chinese and they left me alone. I then went upstairs to the hotel restaurant for lunch, which was quite busy with local people. I wanted something light so I ordered some sautéed vegetables. It was fairly tasty and the chrysanthemum tea they served was excellent. After an uneventful train ride back to Beijing, I went to an opening at Li Gang's Gallery in 798. There was a Mongolian barbecue after the opening in front of the gallery. The exhibition consisted of two artists, one from Boston and the other a Chinese woman, Gao Ping, who lives right in front of me in 318. There were two contrasting style's, Mr. Jenkins was very strong and forceful with no subtlety, Ping's were very subtle and ironic in both style of drawing and the subject matter. It was a nice exhibit.

After the cleanup of the barbecue, one of the workers gave me a lift home as I was not up to a night of drinking on the town. It got very cold. Caleb was sick and I promised that I would try to call him when I got back to Beijing on Skype. But there was no answer on Skype at my son's home. I was able to get in touch with Leslie and we coordinated or attempted to coordinate a Skype call when she was out visiting the twins this weekend. I was also able to send an e-mail concerning my questions on the upcoming show at the Zibo Museum. It was almost midnight and I wanted to finish a large Creation Series installation for the upcoming Zibo Museum show by Monday morning, because that is when the photographer is coming for the 5 images needed for the catalogue. So I'm going to try to get up very early.

Day 10

I slept very soundly because I was exceedingly tired. The changeover in Boshan was emotionally draining. The cleaning girl came promptly at 9:00 AM. Huang, who was also supposed to show up at 9:00 AM, did not appear. At 10:00 AM I called him and he said that he was at the hospital because his brother had an accident. There was plenty to do with the studio as I wanted to complete a large new installation that would be part of the Creation Series. Zhao Feng stopped by to deliver the fabricated metal connecting pieces to hang the glass sculptures.

The best part of the morning was talking to my grandchildren in Seattle on Skype. Mattea was showing off her new dress and telling me how much she liked ballet school. Caleb described some of his projects at the Montessori school he is attending. We tentatively plan to get together in the middle of May for a joint celebration of my son and his wife's birthdays. Unfortunately, Shea Dog has terminal stomach cancer and is really hurting. My son got him through the pound and was with the pound when they picked up the litter, which included Shea Dog, at Shea Stadium. She is one half pit bull and one half German Shepherd and is the most even-tempered dog I have ever known. He accepted both children after they were born and was very protective no matter how much they tortured him. Hearing about her slow but steady deterioration is upsetting. But she was a great dog for my son and his family for many years.

Yao Chen, a professional photographer came over to take photographs of the five sculptures I am to show at the Zibo Museum exhibition to open near the end of April. He also took a portrait shot. These will be included in the catalog of the exhibit. Because the pictures were taken for a print medium, I do not know if I will be able to download them and put them on my website. He had lots of equipment and I just let him do his thing. He was recommended by Lu Coral and seems very professional and was quite reasonable.

By then it was lunch time and since I didn't know Chinese well enough or any phone numbers for take-out restaurant, I called Oxy for assistance. I had no food in the refrigerator and I wanted to feed the cleaning girl. But after waiting 40 minutes she decided to go home and thanked me for trying. They never showed up so I made some pasta with garlic and olive oil and had a glass of red wine. I then decided to do some errands on my electric bicycle to go to pick up my clean shirts at the local laundry. It was one fifth the price of the laundries I previously used, which were both adjacent to the Western ex-pat community near Jenny Lu's. But they were closed for the day. I then picked up some things at the drugstore and went over to Zhao Feng's metal fabrication facility because I wanted to discuss a new idea with him. But he was not there. Because of a strong wind, it was extremely cold.

Because time is running out I did some more work on the sculptures rather than taking a badly needed nap. At 7:30 PM I was both hungry and had cabin fever, so I got on my electric bicycle to go to a local Hunan restaurant that has a terrific tofu "potato salad" as an appetizer. The temperature dropped to well below freezing and it was a very cold ride to the restaurant. After they took my order, they told me that they were out of this dish, which was the case on two of my previous visits to this restaurant. The other dishes were very ordinary but I was able to get into a new book entitled Strategic Vision by Zbigniew Brzezinski. The ride back was even colder.

After speaking with Leslie and the twins on Skype, I did some more work on a wire mesh sub-sculpture. Although I was almost done, I was getting very sleepy so decided to finish it in the morning. Because it was so cold out a portable heater was taken up to the bedroom again. Learning from my experience at the beginning of the trip I put it on its movement mode and it warmed up the room nicely without getting me too hot. Hopefully this would enable me to get a good night's sleep.

Day 11

This was going to be a very busy day. Oxy came by to polyurethane the metal inserts previously delivered by Zhao Feng. I completed the sub sculpture and then we hung the glass sculptures on the just completed sub-sculpture.





We then went out to buy needed supplies for some work at the studio. We were looking for lead fasteners to be used with a crimping tool for the wire on the back of the sculpture installations. It is much stronger than picture wire that is twisted. We went to the local hardware district. Oxy cruised in the van with a sample of the wire and crimping grommet asking "you mei you?" Everyone responded "mei you" to the grommet, but they had the right size wire. So we bought the wire and then asked how they secured the wire since it could not be easily twisted. They use a type of clamp and I purchased ten of them since no one seemed to have the lead grommets.

As we were looking in one of the stalls we noticed that there was a second row of stalls that had no street exposure. One of the stalls had the screw eyes that we were looking for. I happened to mention that we were having trouble finding lead grommets used with a crimping tool. The woman who was running the shop smiled and went back to her desk and produced a bag with over 1000 of the precise size fastening grommets we needed. Each grommet was ½ RMB, which is quite expensive. But I was happy to bargain and we purchased 20. Also, there was a problem with the tiles in the upstairs bathroom and I wanted to buy adhesive to fix those tiles before the domino effect could take place with the other tiles surrounding the upstairs shower. We found the right adhesive. You can buy almost anything along this road of stalls.

We then picked up Nathaniel at the subway station. After wandering around for 3-1/2 years trying to find himself, in the last six months he has created a thriving business doing architectural and commercial photography. He also does some work with artists but he much prefers large corporate clients because they can easily afford his hourly fees of $350 per hour for both the shoot and editing time and a $500 fee for his special lighting equipment. He was motivated by a Korean girlfriend who told him that he had to get his act together if he wanted her to stay with him. So he decided to try to take his on and off again free lance photography one step further and to make it into a real business.

He redesigned his website and was able to get a job with a large German company, which had previously flown in its own photographer from Germany. This worked out very well, and by word of mouth his corporate clients expanded. But he does do work for individual artists, but only those that are very well-established because they are the only ones who can afford his fees. I had first met Nathaniel when he moved into Li Gang's place at the Pickled Art Institute. He had quit his job as an architect in London with absolutely no idea of what he wanted to do in life except drink a lot of beer. He took whatever work he could find in Beijing, such as helping people buy and install audio and computer equipment. Basically he lived on savings. Peter Lewis and Denise had used him to photograph their art and said he was excellent so I wanted to retain him for an hour to give me his ideas on what worked with my sculptures. His turnaround is an amazing success story. His girlfriend is back in Korea and he is so busy he doesn't have time to take off to visit her. He does not want to lose the momentum.

After taking Nathaniel and Oxy out for lunch of Beijing duck at Jin Bin Wei, we went back to the studio. I had to have that at least once during my visit to Beijing. Oxy and I were able to rehang the new installation while Nathaniel was discussing some of his thoughts and ideas for imaging my art work.



Peter Lewis came over for a quick visit and then went back to his studio as he was in the midst of a painting frenzy. I wanted to pay Nathaniel for his time and preliminary thoughts and he refused. He went off to Peter's because Peter needed a portrait shot for an upcoming catalog/book.

Oxy and I had a lot to do because he was not going to be available on my last day. So we organized the packing the glass sculptures and baggage for my return trip and then I went off with Huang to pay for my Internet service and connection for the next year. I took the number to wait my turn, which I estimated would be an hour. Fortunately the person next to me had a number that was even higher and agreed to wake me just before my number was called. I fell asleep in the seat immediately. My neighbor woke me up just in time. I was assigned a trainee but fortunately the trainer was someone who had dealt with me in the past and knew exactly what I wanted so the processing went very smoothly. As part of the company's new promotion they were offering to me free cell phone service for over 300 minutes if I switch carriers. But that would require that I switch my cell phone number. I explained why that wouldn't work for me … i.e. new business cards, changing my website and notifying everyone of my new number. I kept the same business number in New York for over 40 years. She still could not understand why I would not take advantage of such a wonderful deal.



I was back in the studio by 6:00 PM and we continued to work until almost 8 o'clock. Oxy and I then went out for a quick bite to eat in Hegezhuang. The food was quite good in a very simple setting that Zagat's would give a 2 for décor and atmosphere.

Then we came back to the studio to go over what had to be accomplished during my absence, including the transportation of my sculptures to and from the CIGE exhibition, as well as what he had to do to coordinate with the Zibo Museum. We also went over things that needed to be done to prepare materials for my next visit to my Beijing studio.

I was going to do some more artwork, but I deferred to writing this diary and doing some work on my curriculum vitae for the upcoming exhibition at the Zibo Museum. I started to do some editing of the images but then decided that that would be perfect to do on the long plane trip home tomorrow. Riding my electric bicycle in the cold and wind of the prior day had given me a cold, so I'm going to try to get a good nights sleep.

Day 12

The last day is always so hectic. But I decided this time it would be a calm wind down day. The sculptures were packed for delivery to New York yesterday. Today would be devoted to leisurely packing and making sure everything was closed down properly and I did not forget anything. My only concern was that Huang did not show up on time to get me to the airport. He has a station wagon so it is easy to load in the packed sculptures. He called three times. The first was that his baby daughter was in the hospital. I had heard this excuse before. He wanted to know if I could use his brothers' two cars. I said I am not going to pay double and all of a sudden he was available. Then he called a second time to confirm the time.2:15 PM as it was a 5:00 PM flight and I wanted to allow for traffic jams on the way to the airport.

I then focused on catching up on what was going on back in the states and completed a leisurely packing, with very little time to doing more art. I finished the new Creation Series "Fish Playing" and did not want to start anything else in that series because the trimming cuts to the wood bases still had to be done. Oxy was to do that when I was back in the states.





I could have done the epoxying for some of the Shattered Dream/Energy Erupting Series but after laying out two pieces, I decided to meditate for 30 minutes and focus on possible new ideas for some glass sculptures and lighting approaches for showing and/or photographing The Creation Series.

Huang showed up 2 hours earlier confusing 2:15 with 12:15. He could not come at 2:15 because he had another job between 1:30 and 6:00. His brothers were no longer available. But if we went now he could drive me to the airport. My decision was that it was better to arrive four hours before departure than search for a new driver and worry about whether the car was large enough. I would get something to eat at the One Pass Club at the airport. There were no traffic jams and no waiting lines at security, so I was in the outgoing terminal with almost four hours before boarding time. I then realized that in the unplanned rush to leave I had left my iPad at the studio.

United had taken over the Continental Elite lounge and had changed the rules. Although I was a Continental Gold Elite, I was only a United Silver Elite because I was 10,000 miles below the Gold Elite minimum, United having failed to give me 14,500 mile credit for this trip. So I was told the lounge was no longer accessible to me. This is foolish bean counting as there are now a number of competitive flights from New York to Beijing. This new attitude after the United Continental consolidation was consistent with what the stewardesses told me on the flight over. But I found a nice coffee shop where I could hang out for a few hours and do some office work and eat a leisurely lunch.

The flight back was quite empty and I was able to get a three across seat to lie down. When this happens, coach is just as good as business or first class and $10,000 cheaper. So I got a fairly good sleep and was looking forward to seeing Leslie and returning to New York.