Art Lovers discussion

Hey Everyone! I know it's a little (lot) late in starting this thread, some of us have probably already started celebrating!

But this is one holiday I think the world believes in, no?

Plans?
Traditions?
Resolutions?

Let's here it for 2012!!!

Happy New Year, Heather and everybody! I'm planning to lose 15 lbs, get fit, and start my business and creative plan.

Well, I guess I should post a comment. I wish I had big plans for tonight but alas, I'm a bah humbug. Didn't used to be, however...

Plans: Maybe my husband will come over, there might be a night of 'truce'. Who knows. Last year we had only been married a month and there is absolutely nothing to speak about. So I will move on...

Traditions: Hmmm, traditions seem to change, don't they? High school, well, pretty much party time, dances, etc. College more of the same. And for some of us even out of school for awhile, party time never stopped! I guess I really don't have any 'traditions'. Watching the ball drop in NY.

Resolutions: This may seem to be the same as goals, I don't know. But this coming year I resolve to lose 60 more pounds. That's a pretty common one. That's why the gyms are so packed in January! Of course, eating healthier, etc.

I also want to finish more books in 2012. I need to finish all those that I've started this year! And I'm looking forward to filling my head with more.

I would like to learn to play the violin. It has always been a dream. That could be a goal maybe, more than a resolution and one that might or might not be realized this coming year.

I know I will have more resolutions, I will have to edit this post when I think of them.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Next?....

Thank you, Aloha! Those sound like great plans. Good luck with your business, and of course losing the weight. In fact good luck everyone who has this particular goal!

I understand about relationships, Heather. I'm having an alone night by choice, too. My daughter is at her dad's this weekend. Since it's been hectic lately, I welcome the time alone to get my thoughts together. I could have hopped a train to NYC and watch the ball drop. Maybe next year, since I'll be having my daughter, I think, I'm going to rent a hotel room with her and watch the ball drop.

The tradition I usually do is hang out with my in-laws, play poker until the ball drops. Since I'm divorced now, I don't have that tradition, anymore.

Good luck with losing the 60 lbs. Wow, I thought losing 15 lbs. was going to be hard, since I've nver dieted. I'm still not going to diet, just not pigging out and getting back to being good about daily exercise.

Creatively, I would like to practice drawing lots of trees. I was trained in drawing figures, but never really did landscapes. I'd also like to learn more about photography, take more pictures. I joined Instagram and hope to get as active at that site as I am at Goodreads. Goodreads has been phenomenal for my reading and wriitng life. It's amazing how only an online membership can make a world of difference in my life. As far as computer art, the list is endless of what I want to do. I guess I need to decide what I want to do regarding that.

Socially, I eventually need to start dating again. I dated after my divorce, but was not happy with the selection. Then during the winter, it was hilarious how I started getting text, eMails, Facebook friend requests from old flames. But I have enough on my hands creating a new me. LOL

Good luck with your resolutions, Heather. If you can lose 60 lbs., you can lose 60 more. You have to give me your secret, because the idea of losing 15 scares me. LOL

I guess I'm a contrarian. I decided that making an "official" resolution at New Years, makes it more like work. It's just me, it may work for other people. So I make resolution s or plans throughout the year and try to keep quiet about them, lest I jinx things. It seems like when I do I can usually stick to it.

I did do a Goodreads book goal (76) this year, and just made it.

I usually don't knock myself out partying on New Years. (I am more likely to do that around Halloween.)
Being fresh, I like to bicycle about a few blocks on New Years Day, or walk around, and enjoy how quite it is, assuming the weather is nice (which it has been in Santa Cruz). Won't probably do that this year, I am nursing a cold tonight.

Good 2012 Morning (or afternoon or evening) everyone! I hope everyone's New Year's Eve was everything you planned and hoped it would be!

When you have some samples of your new drawings/paintings of trees, Aloha, I hope you will share! And as to 'creating a new me', I think that should be more of my focus, too. When I am content with myself and where I am in life, things just seem to fall into place...including relationships so I am not planning on pursuing anything right now, I'll just let it happen.

Great job on meeting your 2011 book-reading goal, Ed!!! I think I won't set a numeric standard to my reading in 2012, like I said, I just need to finish what I've started! lol


Taking a bicycle ride in nice weather, enjoying the first day of a new year sounds wonderful. Hmmm, the weather isn't too cold here, especially for this time of year so that sounds like a fun thing to do.

Thank you for your thoughts and 'sharing' this new year with me and the rest of us!

Xichu(Chinese opera) New Year Paintings








New Year paintings are wood engraving pictures that people use during the Spring Festival to ring out the old, ring in the new, seek good luck and ward off evil spirits. The elegant painting and engraving are well worth appreciating. There are a wide variety of New Year paintings among which Xichu New Year paintings exhibit the richest contents. Passing down traditional culture from generation to generation with characters, plots and painting, Xichu New Year paintings are, so to speak, the most informative and aesthetic New Year paintings. Because operas were played by piece in the past, New Year paintings of dramatic genre were called Xichu New Year paintings where Xi means opera and Chu means piece.

Xichu New Year paintings of various forms are stuck on to walls, doors, panes, kang (a heatable brick bed) sides and lamp surfaces, and become part of interior decoration. They are there for people to enjoy and explain history and culture to their children, so they also constitute an important part of little tradition education in folk China.

Xichu New Year paintings became popular with the prosperity and development of Chinese operas since the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty. During this course, because of the differences in play, character, posture, facial type, costume, setting and tool in various local operas, the differences in engraving skill, color process and manufacturing method in different regions, and the differences in external factors like economic conditions, Xichu New Year paintings developed into various regional styles with distinctive characteristics.

A Xichu New Year painting is engraved after repetitive adjustments to the manuscript of the touching plots and graceful expressions and postures from a well-chosen drama played by a renowned actor/actress, which is completed by a consummate painter at the scene. The painting not only tells the essential plots of the drama, but also vividly depicts the characters, costumes, appearances, postures, formula, scenes and stage properties. It converts the cream of drama, which is a kind of temporal art, to the composition, colors and lines of a New Year painting, which is a kind of spatial art. In the creating process, the painter would usually add their unique ideas to make their work the crystal of engraving art and drama.

http://traditions.cultural-china.com/...

There are generally two categories in Chinese ancient paintings methodologically, one is hand-drawn Chinese paintings that are mounted into scrolls, the other is New Year paintings and engraved paintings that adopt block printing.

New Year painting was one of the most prevailing arts among Chinese folks. In old times, people stick New Year paintings（年画）, door god picture（门神） and New Year scrolls (春联) on the walls, as a way to welcome the up-coming spring and exorcize evils. The paintings would stay till the next year. However, few family stick New Year paintings nowadays, because the paintings do not fit the modern interior style any more, or people has changed perhaps. Door god picture, as a kind of New Year paintings, survives, and New Year scrolls is still popular too.




Door god pictures, they are pasted on the front door to guide the family and drive away evils.


Featuring the Empty Fort Strategy, a story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of Chinese Four Classic Novels.



http://www.chinahush.com/2010/02/25/a...

Should We Even Make New Year's Resolutions?
New Year's Resolutions? Should We Even Go There?

Rhetta Peoples

Here are four ways to take charge of your new wish list:

1. Develop a plan of action: Put together a spreadsheet of what goals you want to achieve, how you plan on achieving them and who will help you get to those goals. Each week, take a look at that sheet and update it based on the progress (or lack of) that you've made. If your goal is to go back to school, it's going to be really hard to do that if you don't fill out the school's application. So, get busy putting that spreadsheet together and take ten minutes each week to update it.

2. Surround yourself with people who have achieved success in the same field: Let's say you're planning on winning the New York marathon next year. Your conditioning plan is key. Even if you know a little something about running, you may want to reach out to some successful marathon runners to find out what they do to prepare themselves for various races. If you do win the New York marathon, don't forget to call your good old, long lost cousin you never met (me) and break me off a few dollars. Putting yourself in good company also helps you gain great support for your new adventure.

3. Be realistic and pick your resolutions before you have that glass of champagne: If you want to win American Idol next year and you've never sang a good-sounding note in your life, scratch that resolution off your wish list. You're just doing yourself and injustice by creating resolutions that aren't realistic. However, if you've spent too much money in the past twelve months and you'd like to save more, take a look at the areas in your budget in which you can cut back. Making fewer trips to Starbucks for example may be a good place to start!

4. Don't quit: Easier said than done, right? Well, if you're truly serious about your list of resolutions, then you need to be prepared to stick to it even when times get rough. If you hit a roadblock or regress, it's not the end of the world. You still have the option to get back into the game. Acknowledge that you've made a mistake but keep on going until you get it right.

I read an interesting article the other day that you're more likely to stick to your resolutions and/or goals the less you talk about them. A study was done and the result was that those who didn't talk about their resolutions were more likely to follow through. The article said that the reason was that because the more you discuss your intentions, the more pats on the back you get, which sort of tricks the brain into thinking you've already achieved your goal. You are then less motivated, because your brain thinks that you've already done it. I thought this was interesting and it kind of made me chuckle. Reminded me of all the times I've made resolutions and told everyone about them, and then of course failed to stick to my plan.

That's very interesting, Kristen.

That's very interesting, Kristen. I have found that in the past, the more people I tell about my intentions, the more motivated I feel not to let them down and disappoint them. But I have a past history of not really sticking to my resolutions anyway. I will try that this year. Maybe it will help!

I make 2 resolutions every year - 1 that I always keep
I will buy some new clothes.
The second one is always a harder one to keep like losing weight, exercise more etc.

I like traditions and customs, but somehow I never bought into the resolutions and have never made one. Maybe I should make a resolution to make a resolution each year..... But if I do, I won't tell!

Dvora said "make a resolution to make a resolution each year

Cute, Dvora. It's a good start!

I was in a meeting today and one lady said her resolution for 2012 was to gain weight (she is a fairly large woman). She said that every year She resolves to lose the weight and always fails. So this year, if she doesn't lose it, at least she would have still kept her resolution!

Well, here the year is half-way over. How are we doing on our 'resolutions' or lack of? I just read over the past threads...I am not keeping to many of my goals. I have actually gained 17 pounds :( but I just finished another book this morning. Not much, but in 1/2 a year I have finished about 6 books. That's a start for me... I find that a lot of the books I endeavor to read are not attention-grabbing page-turners. I can only read a bit at a time. And I think some of the books I have started are quite a chunk to swallow.

I hope everyone is doing well!

I didn't do any official New Years resolutions, since I was afraid of the "June curse". :) I was insane enough to set a Goodreads goal however.

Well, I've read 30 books this year so far. So I am 14 books behind my admittedly very ambitious 100 book goal. Or 15 if you refuse to count "Angels and Demons" as an actual book (hey it was only 25 cents).

I would count Angels and Demons as an actual book. Though it's fiction, I thought it was entertaining. I'm not one to read a lot of fiction and I think my opinion of that particular book is encouraged by the fact that it has it's setting in Italy. I went to Italy again the same year I read that book and visited all the piazzas that were mentioned in the book. It was fun!

I think 30 books is awesome! Good job, Ed! I'll be lucky if I read 15!

My (admittedly very belated) advice/opinion on NY resolutions: it's hard to resist making one, plus it's a fun conversational topic around Jan 1. So, I always make a resolution that is very easy to keep (=guaranteed success). For example, one year I resolved to stop running out of toilet paper. Another, to go to Radio Shack more often.

But, if we're being brutally honest in this June update, I can't remember what mine was for 2012. Maybe I already kept it though?