A visit to the Bowers Museum Santa Ana

If you live in the Little Saigon area and you are retired then you can find all kinds of  activities free of charge or with a nominal fee. We happen to join  a group of  art activities for seniors at the Nguoi Viet newspaper location. This activity is free of charge and is sponsored by James Irvine Fundation together with the Bowers Museum and the newspaper Nguoi Viet. Each class lasts 8 weeks. We learned about painting using charcoal, acrylic paints etc... We also learned using mixed media (papers, feathers, newspapers or whatever you can find around you to create arts). We spend 7 weeks on a project and the last week is dedicated to graduation. Every two weeks, there is a visit to the museum where we can enjoy entertainment and art activities. This activity has been there for over a year now, but we are newcomers so we had our first graduation on mixed media and our first visit to the museum. All the paintings made by the students were displayed at the museum to the delight of all. On the day of the visit, we gathered in front of  Nguoi Viet office and a bus took us to the museum. The bus trip was short but very pleasant, because we were entertained by the students of the class and one of the Nguoi Viet news paper representatives with jokes and songs.

The museum was impressive. Not only could we watch our paintings but we could equally see the original paintings that we used as models.

We could see other projects from the other students coming from different locations in the county : the aluminum foil creations, the paintings on conical hats, the use of other medias like flowers and fruits to create impressive art works etc...(Sorry I did not take any pictures- I was kind of lost among such creative art works). We hope that we will learn those techniques in the future.

We took a group picture in front of the students' art works.

Here are our pictures in front of our paintings

Our visit did not stop there. In fact we were treated to a good lunch with pastries and ice creams. The weather was really hot. The ice cream treat was very much appreciated. Inside the museum, chairs and tents were set up in the garden for the visitors to enjoy the music  played by different musical group invited by the museum. We were lucky to listen and dance to the enchanting music of the  islands : calypso, salsa, samba, reggae etc...

The show ended with a group of Jamaicans dancing and performing magic tricks : man on stilts, fire eaters , man lying on  bed of nails, man walking on broken glass etc...

                                    Man on stilts

The trip was informative and educational and at the same time entertaining. We enjoyed the outing immensely and will certainly do it again and thanks for the sponsorship

“Love of a father to his child in his special way”

Strong emotions when watching those paintings “Love of a father to  his child in his special way” .

These paintings from Doctor in psychology Nguyen Hoang Khac Hieu bring a lot of comments among the online community due to its high values in human behaviors.

“Love of a father to his child in his special way” is composed of 10 small paintings with simple sketches, but the contents have a strong meaningful message: "The love of the father to his children is difficult to detect but it does not mean that this love is non-existant. Father loves his children in his own way. We can say that this is a subtle way to remind every young person about his father ‘s treatment and love for his children.

Mother loves children  by feeding them.

Father loves children through toiling.

When mother misses the children, she calls them

When father misses their children, he works harder.

When a child  misbehaves , mother was sad and cried.

When father punishes a child, he is aching inside. 

Mother teaches their children through the love and the flexibility of her heart.

Father loves their children through discipline.

Mother loves their children through hugging.

Father loves their children by lending a strong shoulder.

Mother loves their children through care for security.

Father loves their children by helping them grow through the experience of life.

The love of the mother is like the sunshine, it is warm, sweet and visible.       

The love of the father is like  the darkness of the sky, it is silent but extremely deep

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We paste posters of our idols everywhere on the wall

But do we see an idol right in front of our eyes, 

we did not even see his hair is turning white?

 

Did we ever use words that hurt him? (Wish you were not my father?)

                         

Do not wait for the excuses that can no longer come up to Him.

Do not wait for the words of love to become too late…

web reference :http://ihay.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/default.aspx

Goodies from my garden

Since I am in the show off "spree" mode, here are some of the flowers of my garden. When it 's hot, many kinds of birds come over for water. Humming birds often fly around sucking nectar from flowers.
We have red, white and pink epiphyllum, this is the season when they start to bloom and they are gorgeous. In the front door, we have wisteria flowers, they bloom around april or may.

           

Epiphyllum - white	Epiphyllum - white
Epiphyllum - Red	Epiphyllum - Red
bougainvilleas  pink	bougainvilleas orange
Mandevillea - Red	Mandevilla at garden entrance
Wisteria	Wisterias at the front door
Peach tree - Very sweet	Grape fruits - 1st year
front yard roses	roses again
Pnk Epiphyllum blooming	Backyard

New Experience with charcoal painting

If you live in the Orange County area, you have a chance to take part in lots of activities especially for seniors. Two weeks ago, we took a still-life course. Here are my second week drawings. Painting with charcoal is fascinating, you got charcoal everywhere on your body, and on your clothes, even on your face if you are not careful. But the most fascinating part is shading and perspective. My first drawing "Bananas for ever" is inspired from an existing drawing on the internet. The second one is live drawing : the magnolia flowers came from the tree of my neighbor who decided that he no longer wanted magnolia tree near his house, so he cut it down. We took the branches with the flowers still on but not blooming yet. We put the branches in a vase, filled it up with water and put a pill of "aspirine"in the water. The next day, the flowers started to bloom. They are fragrant flowers, so the house was perfumed with the fragrance  and the flowers are really huge. So I also show the pictures of the flowers together with my painting.

Magnolia in bloom	My Painting " Bananas for ever"  painted with charcoal
The Magnolia flowers turned orange when getting old	My Painting with charcoal " Magnolia for ever"

Water Color Painting

These paintings were done in 2009, when I started to learn water color painting. Just want to show off on my blog.

Water & Mountain - Vietnam scenes	Multi-level culture
Halloween inspiration	Longevity cranes
fruits and flowers	orchids? violets? Just forgot what it was
Flowers again	In order not to waste papers , I just painted on the strips

Mother and Son

Miki was 5 years old. He loved to go to the Jardin du Luxembourg to play with other kids of his age pushing with a stick the model sailing boats under the fountain splashing water.

He was playing in the garden when his mother called out to him: "Miki, let's get ready. I'll take you to the Jardin du Luxembourg.".  Miki ran inside the house, washed his hands and got ready to go but he did not look as happy as usual. Something bothered him and his mother could tell by looking at him. His mother also had something in mind and she also wanted to take this opportunity to tell him. So both mother and son got in the car and started on the way. "Son, something bothers you?" asked the mother. Miki just shaked his head without saying anything. "I have something to tell you, son. Next week, I will have to go to the hospital for an operation. Mom will be absent for a week or so. It won't last very long and I will be back home in no time. Be good to Daddy ok?". Miki looked at his mother and asked sadly : "Mom, are you going to die?" "Why do you ask me that question, son?" asked his mother. "Dad told me that you will have a heart operation and that you could die." Miki said in a trembling voice.
 "Son, do I look like I am going to die?. I will have my operation, everything will be ok! I promise you that I will be back home very soon, and I will be able to play tennis with you every day if you want to."
Miki felt reassured, his mother always kept her promise to him and he felt relieved. Now he could enjoy pushing the model sailing boats with his friends at the fountain.

My experience with Miss Universe 2012 pageant

I have never considered Miss Universe like a fantastic event. I sometimes watched on TV but did not care much. This time, we got two tickets to see Miss Universe pageant 2012 at Planet Hollywood on December 19, 2012 in  Las Vegas. Since Vietnam had a contestant so we thought we should go. Of course we voted for her even though we knew she would have a very light chance to win..

I must confess that I am impressed by the ambiance outside and inside the theater. It seems to me every Miss something was there: so many beauties in one place! Almost everyone around me is a crowned Miss.

Inside the theater, the ambiance was terrific. People came all over the world to defend their color. Flags of different countries were waving in the air with slogan to hope to win. The most beautiful part is the national custom show. Click on the picture or the link to go to you tube.

Miss Mexico - Miss Universe 2012 National Custom Show

Some of the dress are fancy beyond imagination. I am not so sure that it is their true national customs but they were quite attractive to look at.

The loudest groups to defend their countries are the Filipinos and the Mexicans. I guess somewhat they had influenced the judges. I am glad I was at that event, this is something that it is worth attending for once in a life time.

Miss Vietnam in National Custom.

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Xuân Quý Tỵ - Cung chúc Tân Xuân

Xuân Quý Tỵ  - The Year of the Snake - Année du Serpent

Happy New Lunar Year!

Click to play the youtube