A Hunt For Native Orchids
21.06.11
During his common hikes on nearby hills, longtime orchid grower Ed Nazzal is drawn to national Bay Area orchids like a chocoholic eyeing candy inside a chocolate rat on.
It's unlikely either of them will ever say, "Enough!"
Out of approximately 30,000 orchid species worldwide , nearly three dozen are citizen to California and about a dozen are on record as growing in the Bay Area.
"I've only seen about five native species here," laments Nazzal, who has grown thousands of tropical orchids during the defunct 27 years. "The rest may be either extinct or rare, but I keep looking to see what's out there."
Nazzal gets to look for them a lot since he goes on hikes at least once a week, always with his camera and as usual on trails near Skyline Boulevard/Route 35 , a hub for native orchids. He says within a 20-two secs drive from Cupertino, hikers can find different native orchids during individual plants' blooming seasons in constitution and county parks or open spaces.
Source: Patch.com
'Painted Poetry' explores Japanese and Korean art
02.06.11
The Cleveland Museum of Art presents The Coax of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art
The exhibit, which can be seen through Aug. 28, offers a rare, in-brightness comparison of the secular artistic achievements of Japan and Korea as reflected in the museum's honoured collections of Asian art. The Lure of Painted Poetry highlights Japanese and Korean artists' efforts to compound the genres of visual art and poetry as they reinterpreted themes of classical Chinese poesy in a variety of visual media, including calligraphy, painting and decorative arts. The fair contains 80 objects from the museum's preeminent Asian collection, dating from the 14th to the 21st centuries.
The fusion of art and poesy is a theme Japanese and Korean artists have explored for centuries and The Lure of Painted Versification prominently features artwork from the Muromachi, Momoyama and Edo periods of Japan (1392-1867), the Joseon full stop of Korea (1392 to 1910) as well as contemporary objects. Korean and Japanese artists were inspired by oecumenical ideals such as the pursuit of knowledge and refinement expressed in Chinese poems to typify their inner utopia and liberation from a mundane life. They interpreted -- rather than copied -- the Chinese metaphor according to their own cultural aesthetic frameworks.
Source: Bedford Times Register