In the bushes...the Chinese are at it again...don't worry about all those exotic things you are crushing...we need that good shot!
Me in the blossoms at the Summer Palace.
Stian and I took out a paddle boat on Bei Hai park. It had really hard green seats. My butt has a bruise.
Me in the paddle boat.
Me in the paddle Boat again.
Other boats on the lake.
The nasty ass ice cream Stian got. It is yam flavor.
Me at Be Hai park walking around. It got really hot like 70's.
A calligrapher's image painted on the side walk in water.
The calligrapher and his work.
A child who had no inhibitions about wearing a dinosaur suit in the park and in 70 degree weather.
Blossoming tree.
This was taken at Jingshun park, overlooking Bei Hai park. This man is trying to get a good shot of his baby....wonder what the mother thinks of this....
Me at Jingshun park. Jingshun park is on a big hill over looking the Forbidden City and is made of the dirt they pulled out from the moat they built around the Forbidden City.
This is Tianji's (my mandarin teacher from Cleveland) sister in law and niece.
Shumien, Tianji's wife and also my teacher, and Stian. Shumien and Tianji's brother's family took us out to eat at a famous Peking duck restaurant.
Squirrel Fish....Stian was a little confused at first...he thought it WAS squirrel.
Shumien.
Shumien and Tianji's brother who lives in Beijing. We found out that his apartment was literally behind the hotel Maggie and I stayed in when we first got here.
The fruit platter we got for dessert on dry ice.
The ducks hanging in the window. Shumien insisted I take a picture.
A park near by Tiennamen that Stian and I went to on his first day here.
A creepy castle/ play area that we found in Ditan park that was deserted.
Creepy baby on a play island in the creepy castle park. (look at this doll's expression)

The island with the baby and other strange creatures.

Mark and Keith, who put my work in their book, "Choosing and Using Paper for Great Graphic Design" (in the section of one off creations with paper). They happened to be in Beijing on vacation for a week and so we decided to meet up.
Guess who's Rollin' Back Prices in China.......
That's right its your friendly neighborhood Walmart! I hadn't seen one in China but Keith and Mark ran into one across the street from where they were staying so I couldn't resist.
Turtles for play......in the "plant and animal section"
Turtles to eat, in the "seafood and meat section". Conveniently located about 200 feet away from the turtles for play.
Walmart China's shoe selection...
Walmart China's ladies wear. In Walmart China one must buy his or her goods at each selected station, that is if you wish to purchase chips you must buy them in the dry foods section, if you wish to buy shoes you must buy them in the clothing section and so on.....which kind of defeats the whole all in one shopping experience Walmart strives for.....
Lacey there is a whole row of Magic Bullets, like an entire section devoted to them!!!!!!!! (ie the amazing chopper, grinder, blender all in one Lacey had and I totally abused in our apartment)
On another note...the water never fully came back on in my apartment after the one day Olympics construction extravaganza. I managed to squeeze this one drop out.....no shower for me.
The very first lawn mower I have ever seen in China...come to think of it one of the only patches of green grass I have seen here as well.
This is the forest they are planing down the road from me. Literally there was nothing there and then overnight they put in that row of trees you see. These are not wee little baby trees these are full grown ones. And currently there are about six more rows added to what you see as well as several hundred shrubs. They work with a mini crane lifting the trees out of trucks and putting them in the ground. I am very curious to see how long these trees last.

Ye, David, Heike, and Vanessa at Vanessa's apartment. Vanessa is one of heike's friends who is also an artist living in the city. She wanted more work space so we were helping her put the bed up along the wall. We accidentally got the bed stuck in the position you see and spent the next half hour trying to figure out how to get it down.
Paintings at the gallery in Ditan Park where Heike will have her show in the fall. These reminded me of Osamu's.
Heike, Ye, and Ye's wife Julie outside the gallery taking pictures.
Ye and Heike.
Some statues Heike liked at the market.
Ye and Julie buying sweet potatoes from a street vendor.
Julie, Heike and I in the sea of bicycles.
Julie, Heike, and Ye. This was taken outside the market.
Heike in the sea of bicycles. Heike is an artist from Denmark who has a studio in another compound close to me.
Ye and me in my studio. Heike introduced us.
Ye and I in his studio. He is from Beijing and is in the same studio compound as Heike. He makes some of the best work I have seen here. He takes posters from common people's homes and transforms them with his own paper cutting technique.
One of Ye's portraits.
Ye with his work.

David and Xiao Niu in my apartment. David is an artist living in another village not far away and Xiao Niu (literally meaning little ox or little cow is his studio assistant). Xiao Niu and I are exchanging Mandarin and English lessons and I had them over for an "American" dinner after they cooked me a Chinese dinner. I made Spaghetti and Meatballs (more Italian but same idea...Xiao Niu had never had it and he likes meatballs...) and brownies for dessert. This picture was taken as they came up with a Chinese name for me....Leo Xiao Yue (Which is translated as six little moon, (the last name being "six" and the first name being little moon). Xiao Niu insists the last name "six" is a very good and beautiful name for girls....so six it is!!!!
A picture of the sun setting outside of my apartment.
A large housing development near the highway and the expat grocery store.
Me and the mini Christo Denise and I found.
A bigger picture of the Christo. There is some sort of construction work going on and the tarp is covering plants or something but it looks like a miniature Christo and Jean Claude.
This is Denise an Australian artist who lives in another compound not far from me and who's studio I will be renting for part of May. We went to the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing and here Denise is pictured on their field...no grand fields at art school in the U.S.!!! Denise and I went there to see a print show and the invitation advertising it had one fatal mistake in its spelling. It said "work show" NOT "work shop"....so we showed up expecting a show and instead got a workshop. But it was fun nonetheless, they gave us a tour around and a catalogue of the exhibition and we met a bunch of Chinese and German artists etc.
This is me, David and Xiao Niu at David's place having the "Chinese style" dinner for Gerry's last night in Beijing about a week ago.

This is David and some of his sculpture work.

Took myself on a little trip to check out the world's second largest IKEA right here in Beijing. (Really not much bigger than all rest rest of them, they have all reached the size of world's largest if you ask me...) Here is my favorite scene, a man sleeping in fact snoring in one of the exhibits....
My heavenly lunch....after which I started to worry maybe lox was not the best choice considering I am close to no jews, oceans, or salmon.... and I really don't think the swedish specialize in it either.
Lacey, even the Chinese IKEA has your little tree!!! (the black thing above the bed)
This man was completely bewildered by this display. I watched him for ten minutes as he stared at the lamp. All jokes aside, it was really interesting to see people interact with the store. I'd say 10% of people were actually purchasing things. The rest were staring kind of in awe.
My old neighbor Gerry took this picture of me about a month ago when we were downtown and found a Starbucks.
Me after bicycling in the rain at 7am to get my breakfast from my favorite street vendor.
Gerry took this picture of the street vendor we go to for our daily breakfast. It costs 2 yuan (roughly 30 cents) and is somewhat like a crispy crepe with egg cooked into the crepe, lettuce, duck sauce, hot sauce, cilantro, and some kind of crispy fish (?) thing. It is soooo good, rain or shine I wake my self up early (as most of you know I do not do) to get this thing...that is how good it is!
Ellen, a writer and critic from the Red Gate program (in black) is filming an opening we went to called "Soft Landing". This is one of the better shows I have seen. The artist is just behind Ellen in an space suit.
Before Ko, my other neighbor left, he taught me how to cook two dishes with Oyster Sauce!!! Thank you KO!!!
My great wall of China installed on the heating pipe.
A close up.
A gear box I was making to try and spin a wine glass....the gears didn't exactly match up right...so I have to keep working on that.
The microwave piece I made...which came out really designy but was fun to make nonetheless and got out my aggravation on the lovely wafting odors here.
This crazy place mat material I found with hamburgers, fries, tea, Chinese fruits etc...

Me eating my watermelon from the market...don't remember if i put this on already...