The Funeral

      Ahh, modern art.  Enlightening.  Ground-breaking.  Thought provoking.  Conceptual.  Confusing?  The later is usually the more common response.  While I'll concede that the art which follows technically doesn't fit into the "Modern" genre, it still fit the descriptive words above.

My art.

Quentin's art.

Both now showing at The Painted Chair Gallery in Busan, South Korea.
I believe he wins.

I Know I'm Breaking the First Rule Here, but...

      So I decided to embrace a Korean custom and indulge in getting a traditional massage I know that I shouldn't be discussing this but I've discovered a women's underground fight club here in Busan. And it pains me to say this but I got beat up by one of them. Severely. You see, I stumbled into what I thought was a nice massage spa and was greeted by a petite, unassuming girl. Looking back on it, I can only make the assumption that she's the women's world champion of the 110 lbs division. I thought that I was laying down for a massage but what ensued was a full body assault. I honestly didn't enjoy a single minute of it. For over an hour I suffered through this woman's torture and abuse. Her elbows and knees were vicious. And her hands! I didn't think it was even possible to have that kind of hand strength. We all know that one guy who shakes hands way too hard, leaving you wondering what he's trying to prove or over-compensate for. Well, she would've shattered every bone in that guy's hand. I'd love to go back only to have her grab those pressure gauges used to measure the bite force of pit bulls, crocodiles, and lions. I'd say that she'd easily register 3,000 pounds per square inch.

      Having never gotten a massage before I always thought that the pillow for your face with the hole in the center of it was there to allow you to breathe. I now know that the hole is for you to cry through. It lets your tears fall to the floor so that you don't drown in them. As my shoulders and neck were being tormented, I laid on my stomach biting the pillow and gripping the table as hard as I could (at only a measly 200 pounds per square inch). But gripping so tightly cause me to tense up and I was quickly met with a swift punch to the back numerous times. As with everything, the language difference was an unfortunate barrier. One of the very few things that I actually could make out were the words "medium pressure." I'm unsure if she was asking me if I'd like for her to ease up and use medium pressure or if she was explaining to me that she was only using medium pressure. If that's true, and she was only using medium pressure then Lord have mercy on whatever poor soul lays on that table and asks for more pressure.

      Now I'm not the most heavily tattooed person ever but I estimate that I've undergone 35 to 40 hours of work. What this woman did to me in a little over an hour was, without a doubt, more difficult to sit through than all of the hours of tattoo work...combined! I wish I were kidding but I'm not. The moral of the story here is do NOT ask for a "sports massage" unless you're willing to suffer the consequences. Stick to the aroma therapy massage.

3...2...1...

      Happy New Years!  Again!  Yep, that's right, it's New Year's Day over here in Korea.  Lunar New Years to be specific.  It is the new moon of February so we turn the pages on the calendar for a fresh start to the Year of the Snake.  Called Seollal, this (and Chuseok) is the most celebrated holiday of the year for Koreans and lasts three days (the day before, the day of, and the day after the new moon).  Seollal is truly a special occasion for the Korean people.  Not only does is grant an opportunity to pay respect to ancestors, it also provides the time to catch up with distant family members.  During Seollal, Koreans usually wear a hanbok (the same customary clothes worn at Chuseok), perform ancestral rites, play folk games, eat traditional foods, and listen to stories of the past well into the night.

      As a foreigner observing my first Seollal, I was amazed by how sacred the holiday truly is.  In the Western tradition of holiday celebrations, I'd say that Christmas, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, and (our) New Year's Day are fairly important.  At least in the sense that the majority of the population gets the day off of work.  Over here, not only is every business open on those days, they're hardly even celebrated (or not even acknowledged at all).  For the first time here, I am shocked that there are literally no places opened today.  Remember, I live in a college neighborhood with a nightlife that easily goes until 6 in the morning, even on weekdays!  And now it's quiet and desolate.

      I am grateful though because I actually have Monday off of school!  This is my first holiday off since the Korean Presidential Election Day on December 20th.  Oops, wait...that's not true.  Remember, I was supposed to have that day off but my school decided to remain open and actually took away a national holiday!  Imagine being one of the Korean teachers and not having the chance to vote for the presidency.  I thought that freedom is what separated us from the North over here!
      Now while I celebrate this very important day over here in Asia, my sleepy little home town of Luling, Louisiana is celebrating the biggest day of the year for them...the Luling Parade (arguably, next to the Alligator Festival)!   I can't believe that I'm missing Mardi Gras but maybe you can't believe that you're missing Seollal!

Revisited

      Though my fitness pursuits have taken up a great deal of my free time since the new year, I haven't completely neglected my artistic endeavors.  I envisioned a particular series of watercolor paintings and upon completing my first one, put them on the shelf because I wasn't sure how I felt.  After a hiatus I revisited the series and painted a second one.  The good news is that I kinda liked it.   It's what I had in mind when I set out to create these paintings.  The bad news is that it made my first one look terrible.  So I cast that one aside in hopes of riding this new wave of momentum and sure enough, I was able to create another painting that I enjoy.  There's a third one in the works and I intend to continue riding the wave in order to see where it takes me.