"I LOVE CHINER!!! CHINER IS MY MOTHER LAND!"--jessie

Last night I got to skype with my friend Chou! It was so great! I had been thinking about China all that day (probably because I was anticipating this skype call!) Things just kept reminding me of China the whole day! For lunch I had spring rolls, a little asian girl came into the G, (she and her mother were ching chonging back and forth!) And then the I kept seeing the little "country cleaners" people in the shop next door to the G! That store is owned by Chinese, and every morning at 9am when the store opens I always see the old man go out, squat on the edge of the sidewalk and smoke... just watching traffic. It reminds me of all the other chinese men I would see do that every morning!

It was really good to talk to Chou! To hear his voice and see him face to face! Even though I am glad to be home, and do not want to go back right now, I really miss the people who I made friends with, the places I went, and even the life style, and seeing Chou brought it all back! He's a great kid though! I really miss him!

He invited all his friends to come see me, apparently some of them did not believe he was friends with a "blonde foreigner" ! lol! but as soon as Chou turned the camera to them they scattered like mice! lol! haha Chou said they were just too shy! lol!

So, as i was working on my portrait today, I decided I needed to get this China thing out of my system, so I painted a small picture, in about two hours, it is more impressionistic then I typically do, but it was fun to do and I am pleased with the outcome! :) It painted from a picture I took in China, it's Tian Tan, or "the temple of heaven" in Beijing! I took this picture from a taxi as we were driving there! as wer were driving around beijing I was pretty surprised about how much nicer the cars looked there compared to the ones in my small city Weihai! I just liked the feeling of the modern busy road and temple in the background. I mean, that temple and it's grounds were built in 1406-1420! So this is old, but the new world still works and functions around it. Going from the noise of the city to the gar

den of tian tan is like stepping back in time! the amazing thing about this structure is that it is held together with out a singe screw, bolt or nail!!!!!! those chinese are pretty dang amazing!

So, I ALSO did work on the portrait of Madison... I know I am being so slow, but it is starting to really pick up, I should be done by the end of october! :) (cross your fingers!)

This is what I had a few days ago! I think it was SUPER cute like this, and if I was not painting it for someone else, I might have left it like this, however, it doesn't look as cute as the real person.... so, I had to do a little but of surgery here and fix her face up a bit.. so this is before the real changes were made:

this is what I have now, I shaved in her face, bad her forehead a little bigger, moved her eye closer, I am going to raise the nose a little, I shaved off the cheek and the chin, giving her more neck, and not such "a long face!" lol! So we'll see, of and her mouth is a little higher! :)