A set of 12 ink drawings.

Working kind of diligently… This is my lonely room.

I have to send my stuff to the gallery by 12/19 so I am looking at some heavy production time…

RK, my bookshelf is in the left corner…

I bet you can guess what is playing in my iTunes.

The ultimate ending for 2008: I am participating in a group show at a gallery in Beijing called Beijing Center for the Arts. The gallery is located in the Legation Quarter which is the old American Embassy during the Qing Dynasty. I will be showing a drawing installation. This is my first time participating in a REAL show… so I am super nervous and excited. If you are in Beijing, please come!!

Near Yonghegong. I love the typeface used on this sign. So friendly!

Beijing makes people do crazy stuff. I woke up this morning with this urge to reorganize my room so I can clear off the desk for a surface to draw.

The wind was blowing at 20mph and the windchill was 0°. I biked to the local market (which I like to call the “Commoners’ Market” for a more rustic feel) to pick up a bookshelf. The market sells authentic “MADE IN CHINA” stuff at real and bargainable “MADE IN CHINA” prices. I bought a not so pretty particle board/thin metal bookshelf for 50RMB, assembly required.

The unassembled box of stuff was almost as tall as me and longer than my bike. I took it outside of the market and stared at my teeny tiny fold up bike and thought to myself, “WTF am I going to do??” A Chinese man stood and observed while I stared back and forth at my bike and the big box for about 3 minutes in the crazy cold weather. Finally, he said, “It won’t fall!”

So I strapped the big box to the back of the bicycle. I peddled some and I pushed some. It was ridiculous.

I thought, at any moment, this thing is gonna pull an E.T. and go flying.

Appropriately placed Chinese Santa Klaus in front of Shin Kong Place in Beijing. It finally feels like Christmas time around here.

A local beauty parlor in an alley on the edge of East 4th Ring…

The shop name, in the 4 big characters, is called “White People Pretty Hair”.

Services offered (in the smaller white characters): 7-color extensions; 7-color highlights; ionic perm; handcrafted big curls; nutritional maintenance; aluminum foil perm; make big flowers; monthly membership discounts; brow trimming; black slow cooking (?); one time straightening; color slow cooking (?)

Interesting services… I am picturing this lady at the door…

I went to the Lucerne/Beijing-based Galerie Urs Meile last weekend for an opening. The gallery was full of people speaking different languages chomping down hors d’oeuvres catered by Comptoirs de France. Then there was this German Underberg beverage that they were serving to us… I’ve never seen or heard of Underberg back in the states…. what is this beverage that is supposed to make me “feel bright and alert”? Is it tasty?

This is our “work space” at CAFA. I have a desk and a chair. It is always so cold in there…

Until I get a real studio space, this is where I’ll be working…