Hanging out with the DeOliveiras

Today we went over to the home of the DeOliveiras for a Jamaican style dinner and played with niece Gigi. Ana made conch fritters, peas and rice and curry beef. Gigi allowed us to stroll her around the neighborhood without her parents following along. What a milestone!

More Outings in S FL

Visiting the Green Cay Wetlands Park in Delray Beach with Mark, niece Gigi, mom and sister Ana

Visiting Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach with mom, Gigi and Ana

Winter Holiday in South Florida

Visiting the Walkers in Ocala/Belleview

Attending a Christmas Eve party at the cousins' down in South Broward

Christmas dinner at the home of Ana, Ron and Gigi

Piggy Bank for Ethan Liu

Last night, the Swamp Buddhas celebrated with the Liu family Ethan's 1-month birthday (born October 15, 2007) at Ann Kozeliski's new home. Mark had created a clay piggy bank to collect good fortune for Ethan. We presented it to him while he was sleeping in his mom's arms. Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Synergie Salon, etc

Mark was the featured gift shop artist at LeMoyne for the month of October.

Mark's mom, Eva, visited us from Cleveland. We attended the reception for Sense of Habitat at the Tallahassee Museum. Mark has 3 poems/paintings in the exhibit, curated by Linda Van Beck.

Mark is currently in the Synergie Salon exhibit at the Claude Pepper Changing Art Gallery on FSU campus. The exhibit opens on First Friday November 2 and runs until November 30, 2007.

Strange Bedfellows

After a hard day in the studio, Mark takes a nap...

Upcoming Fall Exhibits

It's fall season again and here are the upcoming Turtle Hill exhibits. Please visit us anytime you can!

First Friday, September 7, 12 Dreams Gallery in Railroad Square, 6--9 pm: Sketches of South China

First Friday, October 5, Big Brothers Big Sisters agency, 565 E Tennessee St (across from Leon HS), 850-386-6002, 6--9 pm: preview of A Brushstroke Path 2007--Asian-style artwork by the Swamp Buddhas

First Friday, October 5, LeMoyne Gift Shop, 6--9 pm: featuring Mark's artwork for sale

Saturday and Sunday, October 13 and 14, Tallahassee Nurseries, 10 am--5 pm: Artisans in the Garden

Saturday, October 13, Tallahassee Museum: opening of exhibit titled A Sense of Habitat--
on display until January 6, 2008

First Friday, November 2, 6--9 pm
Saturday, November 3, 10 am--5 pm
Sunday, November 4, 12 noon-- 5 pm
Forest Meadows Park and Athletic Center, 4750 N Meridian
A Brushstroke Path 2007: Sumi-e Art Show and Benefit (for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Friends of Our Parks)

Monday, November 19--Sunday, December 23, Spruill Art Gallery, Atlanta (http://www.spruillarts.org/): Holiday Artist Market

Thursday, November 29, 10 am--6 pm
Friday, November 30, 10 am-- 6 pm
Saturday, December 1, 10 am--4 pm
FSU Museum of Fine Arts (corner of Call and Copeland Sts)
Art and Antiques Fair (benefit for the FSU Museum of Fine Arts)

Saturday, December 8, 9 am--4 pm
Downtown MarketPlace
"Just One More" Invitational

"Cheer-Awe" Painting for Cheraw State Park, SC

Mark has finished his painting for Cheraw State Park, SC. As part of his Artist-in-Residency agreement, he is to donate a piece of artwork 2-3 months after our stay at the park. The painting is an illustrated poem titled "Red-Cockaded Happiness."

Sketches of South China

Today, our friend, Jeff Zenick, invited Mark to exhibit his sketches from our trip to South China, at his 12 Dreams Gallery at Railroad Square. So check them out at the next First Friday Gallery Hop (September 7, 2007) from 6--9 pm. You will see new work--plein air watercolor sketches of Macau and Zhaoqing City, Guandong Province.

More Photos of Cultural Interest

Li Ping Kang, a visiting clay artist from Foshan, China, at the Mandarin Historical House in Macau

a visiting embroidery artist from China in Macau

land of scooters, primary mode of personal transportation--bicycles are not used much anymore

rice paste rolls for breakfast

a fellow hiker took off her heels during the hike at Mt Dinghu

a trash can shaped like a pine tree stump at Mt Dinghu

stainless steel seats (keep you cool) on an old local bus to Mt Dinghu in Zhaoqing City

pasta handmade on the premises of a shop in Macau

wooden bed with an 1-inch foam pad on top (improvement from last visit when there was no padding)

local hair salon in Macau--hair is washed/head massaged at the seat, then rinsed at the sink

salted fish drying on the side of the road in Macau

thin kitchen-like towels as bath towels

no dryer at grandma et al's apartment--clothes are dried outside the window (washing machine is in the kitchen now)

water heater in the apartment bathroom--5 liter tank--before we heated water in a kettle and bathed in a bucket

Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region) August 4--7, 2007

On August 4, we rode the turbojet boat from Macau to Kowloon, Hong Kong. Ron Ana and Gigi traveled with us, along with mom, dad and uncle. We stayed at the Minden Hotel while the rest of the gang stayed at Marco Polo Prince. Once we arrived, we did our own sightseeing and met with the gang in the evening for fast food dining at one of the bizillion shopping centers in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, along the harbor area. According to the guide book, 7 million people live in the Hong Kong region while 500,000 people live in Macau (yes, only 28 sq km/about 10.5 sq mi!) We flew out of the Hong Kong airport on Lantau Island on August 7. The worst part of our trip was going through TSA/Homeland Security at Newark Liberty Airport. Lines were backed up and no organized consideration were given to passengers who had connecting flights. We had a 2-hour layover in Newark. It took us forever to 1) go through immigration 2) pick up our check-in luggage from the carousel 3) walk through customs to hand in our claim form (luckily they didn't check our bags) 4) re-check in our luggage for our domestic connecting flight and 5) go through TSA again! Why do we need to go through all this hassle in the name of "war on terror"? Needless to say while we were rushing to our gate, we heard the announcement that they were closing the gate on our flight to West Palm Beach in 3 minutes! We practically had to run to our gate! On top of that, when we arrived at PBI, one of our bags was lost so we had to go to Baggage Claim to file a claim. Poor Jessica had to drive around the airport for 30 min while waiting for us to come out of the airport. But all in all, we had a fun and interesting trip to China!

view from the front entrance of Hong Kong Wetland Park in the western part of New Territories

paper cut exhibit at Hong Kong Wetland Park

view of Hong Kong Wetland Park (Shenzhen, another Special Economic Zone, in the background)

another view of Hong Kong Wetland Park

waterfall at Sha Tin Park, a neighborhood park

Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin suburb

replica of studio of Chao Shao-An, famous Chinese painter who founded the Lingnan School of Painting in Guandong Province and Hong Kong

exhibit of paintings by Henry Wo (student of Chao Shao-An) who turned 80 this year

a Buddhist temple in Sha Tin suburb

lobby of Minden Hotel

our hotel room and the Courtney's dining room at the Minden Hotel

Hong Kong Museum of Art in Tsim Sha Tsui downtown district of Kowloon

Incidentally, the museum was having a blockbuster exhibit titled Pride of China. We had to get timed tickets for 8:00 pm entrance. A famous original scroll, Along the River after the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan, from the Ming dynasty era, was on display. There were long, long lines to view this scroll and a museum guard held a timer in his hand while trying to move viewers along the scroll display case.

Hong Kong and Macau museums employ A LOT of security guards! We would never see so many guards at our American museums due to budget reasons. Their museums also have excellent facilities and high-end display designs, such as papering long walls with printed images from the exhibits and using 3-D lettering for exhibit titles.

at the harbor area next to the museum--background: view of Hong Kong Island business district

RAG in Macau

RAG (Ron, Ana, Gigi) arrived in Macau on August 2 from Guangzhou (capital of Guandong Province) via a 2.5 hr bus ride. Luckily they didn't have too much trouble crossing the border from Zhuhai (border city/Special Economic Zone), China into Macau. Yes, Hong Kong and Macau have returned to China's control since 1997 and 1999 yet residents still have to go through border crossing each time they want to travel. Why the heavy bureaucracy still?

Sightseeing the historical Portuguese homes on Taipa Island, south of Macau peninsula

visiting University of Macau, where cousin Ga Ming (George) is working on his masters thesis in engineering


Ana, mom, Gigi at grandma et al's apartment


Ron and Gigi at a local noodle shop for lunch after their arrival in Macau

Zhaoqing City, Guandong Province, China: July 25--July 28, 2007

steps for going up and down a crag


view of crags at 7 Star Crags Park



inside a crag

buffet breakfast at our hotel, Star Lake Hotel (29th floor, La Rounda revolving restaurant)

lunch at Qingyun Temple vegetarian restaurant at Mt Dinghu

waterfall at Mt Dinghu

taking the boat across Lake Ding

a gigantic "ding"--tripod bronze vessel

view of lake from La Rounda restaurant

sunrise view of Zhaoqing City from our hotel room