the ingredients for a fun new year eve

Preparation time: 2.5 hour


Cooking time: 3.5 hours

Total time: 6 hours


Serves: 6

Ingredients:
Interesting people with good appetite

A flower bouquet and some pots of green plants for decoration

Ambient light setting (candlelight is the key)

A few bottles of Masumi Sake, Sauternes, Moet Chandon, and G.H. Mumm

Home-made froie gais, a gift from a lovely guest

3 plates of Temaki Sushi (手巻き寿司) to share

Ginger pears paired with meringue

A good playlist of music to dine and dance

Nice neighbors with high tolerance to noise

Serene Before Irene... 暴風雨前的寧靜...

Last meal at Megu before Irene, to calm the nerves...

Watch People Watching 觀看觀眾

I am standing somewhere in the stuffy “Talk To Me” exhibition room in MoMA. Too tired to focus my attention on nearly 200 objects, all centered on interaction, and emphasized how the need to share information and have a dialogue with audiences in contemporary design... I am turning my head a little so that I get an elusive overview of the works of art surrounding me.

As the room gets louder as it gets latter, my head feels in a dubious state; I feel like leaving the museum and yet wish to stay to watch people watching. I guess I am not one of the hardcore art connoisseurs who sit on this bench to discuss with their partner about the abstract form of William de Kooning’s Woman. To me, an engaged audience can be as interesting as the work of art itself.



中文讀者們, 因為最近忙著公事無法挪出時間將此篇文章翻譯成中文, 對不起了...

Elegant Things 優雅情事

Translucent purple petals lit from the late afternoon light.

The unique patterns and textures on quail eggs.

The elongated sculptures by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966).

The sound of corks popping out from bottles of Burgundy wine.

An encounter with long-lost friends at museums.

An old grandma's innocent smile of tranquillity and happiness.

A pretty fragrance lingering in the fall evening air.

Like the Mischievous Smile of Stan March 像Stan March的頑皮笑容

It was around 2:30 am.

My hurrying footsteps were echoing around the empty platform, as I was making my way out of the subway station at SoHo stop. The air smelled like the breath of a drunkard–––sour, humid, and bitter. The unpleasant odor alerted me, and all of sudden I felt a bit uneasy. After all, the New York City subway is often naked in its danger, bewilderment, agitation.

The sound of my soles was absorbed by my increasing fear until I climbed up the stairs and saw the green subway lamp on Prince Street. Like Stan March in the cartoon South Park, it gave me a bright mischievous smile, and made me surprise into laugher. 

At the instant moment, the fear was gone with the fresh, cool autumn breeze...

The Raindrops 雨滴

Rain poured down on the entire day, only in the late afternoon it decided to take a break. I left my Mac and books behind a closed door and went for a walk to the garden in the East Village.

I remember my last visit here when the late spring sun bore through the gorgeous clouds. The pink sakura petals were falling...And now all the colors were being carried away by the fall wind.

On the bamboo fences and criss-cross hedges I saw tatters of spider webs; and where the threads were broken the raindrops hung on them like strings of white pearls. I was also delighted by watching the raindrops rolling down of their own accord from the plants where they had lain so heavily. 

There was something so enchanting in the sound and smell of the raindrops–––an invisible beauty with the lingering scent of true nature. What most impressed me was that they were not at all impressed.

Tender is the Helsinki Summer Night 赫爾新基的溫柔夏夜

10:15 P.M.

10:45 P.M.

11:35 P.M.

1:10 A.M.

In Helsinki summer, the sun starts moving out of the back door around 10:30 P.M. and waiting at the front around 3:30 A.M. The night sky is often quintessential, a mutable blue between easy-moving clouds, and a breeze blowing in street corners.

On a tender night like this, I like to take a stroll on the streets, feeling the breeze in my hair, smelling the sap and ozone and birch, seeing the streetlights shinning serenely on Fredrikinkatu. I'd keep walking until my hair and shoulders are furred with droplets from the mist, on a tender night like this.

My Eight Wonders in Goms, Switzerland–––The Nothingness of the Aletsch Glacier #5 / 瑞士Goms的八大驚奇–––阿雷汿冰河的虛無 #5

The Aletsch Glacier
While I looked down this serene glacier, I smelt of something.

Something like nothingness.

My Eight Wonders in Goms, Switzerland–––The Walliser Candyfloss #3 / 瑞士Goms的八大驚奇–––阿爾卑斯山的棉花糖 #3

The Walliser Candyfloss
The fur of the Walliser Blacknose 
is like a candyfloss 
tangle in the wind.
瑞士阿爾卑斯山黑鼻羊的毛皮，
像是纏結在風中的
棉花糖。

My Alpine Summer in Goms, Switzerland 我在瑞士阿爾卑斯山Goms的夏日

If you, like me, have a thirst for creativity and an appetite for hiking, the Alps in summer are an ideal playground.

Summer in the Alps is even more alluring than winter. Yes, the visual drama is almost equally striking, but on tope of that you've got the attractions of the wildlife, the colors, and––for me, the clincher––the intoxicating smell of the glaciers and forests.

Just one walk through the woods, accompanied by the sound of a gushing mountain stream or the melody of the ubiquitous cow, goat and sheep bell, is enough to convince me that I should share my sensory Alpine stories with you.

Please stay tuned for the coming episodes of my Alpine summer in Goms, Switzerland...

Fireworks–the Paintings in the Night Sky

My fascination with fireworks goes back to my childhood on the Chinese Lunar New Year and Moon Festival. As a kid, I was triggered by the sound, light, and smell of the magic of gunpowder. I remember lighting my first firecracker, half excited and half scared, with my eyes wide open. 

Today I feed my passion by watching fireworks. There is art to create a good fireworks display–colors, shapes, and sounds complement one another.  A stunning fireworks design requires a wizard who masters and wields the fleeting art overhead. Mixing science, art and technology, the wizard paints on the big, open nighttime sky with his palettes–chemicals, compounds, and fire.

As much fun as they are to watch, fireworks are equally as challenging to photograph. Here are my shots when I watched Switzerland's Independence Day fireworks in Basel yesterday.

Hi from Helsinki

Just wanted to drop a note and hi, I'm doing fine.

Listen to this.

The Art of Waiting 等待的藝術

Design is a PROCESS and so is waiting. Both of them take time and require strength, believe, and perseverance. Although I’m an untiring advocate of PROCESS, I admit that I rather spending time to get the exact color, appropriate shape, and perfect composition for my design work than twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the feedbacks from the design clients, the publishers, and the gallerists.

A silly thought: won’t it be nice to just “click” a button and get an immediate result?

These days, as my world goes faster and faster it becomes harder and harder to slow myself down and allow patience for processes that just take time.  Alas, “The Art of Waiting” has been gradually lost on me.

Waiting can be a torture, but I must know, some things just take good “old-fashioned” time...

設計和等待是過程的一體兩面， 同時需要時間，精力，信仰，以及堅持的考驗。雖然我是個過程的擁護著，但是我倒寧願花功夫在設計作品上以找出精準的顏色，適切的形狀， 以及完美的構圖，而不是扭轉我的大姆指癡癡地等待設計客戶，出版社，或是畫廊業主的關注。

有個天真的想法：如果能夠敲個鍵盤就能立刻得到答案，那不知該有多美好啊。

這些日子以來，我的世界就像顆陀螺般越轉越快，同時卻也越來越沒有耐心去接受一些需要時間來蘊釀的世事。嗚呼哀哉，等待的藝術就這樣從我身上一點一滴地緩緩流失。

等待可以和折磨相同並論，但是我必須提醒自己，有些事情是真的需要紮實的時間來完成的…

Shepard Fairey and His Wall 塗鴉藝術家Shepard Fairey和他的牆壁

The afternoon storm was stopped, and NoLiTa was filled with the fragrance of the plum blossoms and the cheer of springtime again.

I saw Shepard Fairey, with a bucket of glue and a long-handled brush, working tranquilly to the wall with the eye of a graffiti artist.

As I nibbled an apple ––– paid no attention to the emergency sirens and horn beeps from the heavy traffic on East Houston street, I thought of Tom Sawyer, the naughty protagonist in The Adventures of Tom Swayer, written by the American author and humorist Mark Twain.

See my favorite cartoon.

午後雷陣雨停了，紐約下城NoLiTa再次瀰漫著梅樹的芬芳和春天的喜樂。

看見提了一桶漿糊及長柄刷子的Shepard Fairey，心神恬定地以一種塗鴉藝術家的眼光在牆壁上創作。

不在乎East Houston街口傳來繁忙的警鈴及喇吧聲，我小口小口地咬著一粒蘋果，腦海中浮現的竟是湯姆莎耶–––美國文壇幽默大師馬克吐溫的著作<湯姆歷險記>中的那個淘氣小男孩。

看我喜愛的卡通。

Awesome Things That Are Beyond Words 難以用筆墨來形容的美好事物

There are awesome things that are beyond words:

True love;

The taste of fine dark chocolate;

The texture of velvet;

The smell of Sakaura blossoms lingering in the spring breeze.

Listen to this music…

有些美好的事物是難以用筆墨來形容的， 像是：

真愛；

精緻細膩的黑巧克力；

絲絨的觸感；

日本櫻花徘徊在春天裡的氣息。

聽聽這段音樂…

A Reader from Australia

From time to time, I receive e-mails from the readers who share their thoughts about my writing and design with me. They are from the continents in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Asia, Europe and North America. But a few days ago, I got a lovely e-mail from an Australian reader, who said he enjoyed reading my latest book KyotEau: Bottled Memories. I know this reader could be doing any number of other things, but he chose to spend his time with me. Just to think about this makes me feel so rewarding and honored. 

After responding to his e-mail, I organized some time for myself to enjoy a soothing, beautiful Sunday afternoon in Liz Christy community garden on Bowery street. As I entered the garden, scents and colors welcomed me from every corner–––tulips, hyacinths, plums, cherries, crocus, snowdrops and Iris–––greens, purples, pinks, yellows, whites and reds. Suddenly a feeling of euphoria spread through me.

Indeed, gardening and writing has something in common. Either to enjoy the scents of flowers or catch the attention of a reader, it requires love, hard work and commitment. 

Thank you for your lovely letter again, my dear Australian reader. KyotEau fragrance is on its way, I promise.

Obsession with Patterns

While browsing through the photos that I took in Dublin, Ireland, my eyes fixed on a picture that shows a red scooter decorated with white polka dots. Again, it reminds me of Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生).

Kusama said about her painting Flower in 1945, "...a polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm.  Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots become movement...Polka dots are a way to infinity."

Kusama's obsession for polka-dot patterns is a force in the story of one of 20th-century art's most compelling and enigmatic protagonists. Her fascination with what she described as "infinite repetition" drove her to cover paintings and installations with polka dots. She orchestrated happenings such as painting naked models with polka dots on Brooklyn Bridge. Donald Judd and Frank Stella both bought her work; Claes Oldenberg, Andy Warhol, Rei Kawabuko (川久保 玲, the founder of Comme des Garçons) were influenced by her. 

I'm interested in the "process" of making patterns. I'm curious about what was in the scooter owner's thoughts when he applied the dots one by one to the body of his Vespa. It is impossible to tell if he is a fan of Kusama, but at least from the lovely white polka dots and the whimsical black types "Bottoms up!!" he created, he surely knows how to temper passion with color, polka dots, and Irish life.

Red Polka Dot

Alexander Calder's sculpture at King Storm Art Center, photo by Della Chuang

Scent triggers memory, so does color. 

Red color reminds me of polka dot.  So naturally, when I was looking through the cut-out circle of the American sculptor Alexander Calder's red sculpture in King Storm Art Center, I thought of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama((草間彌生), who uses polka dots throughout much of her works.

Anti-Self-Portrait

On a shinny early afternoon, I used light and exposure to acquire my almost anti-self-portrait, relating to my Nordic story more through "sketch style" than through my own physical identity.

This photo is not digitally altered in any way, and at certain degree, it reminds me of the work of the Chinese artist Liang Kai (梁楷, late 12th-early 13th centry), who was known as a mastery in evoking the subject or atmosphere with minimal use of detail.

Photo by Della, Finland

Perspective 觀點

New York Downtown Style: Chinese version vs. Taiwanese version

The old Egyptians drew the head in profile but rendered the eye as if it were on a front view – the body is more recognizable from front than side. However, arms and legs are more clearly described from the side.

Cubism combined glances taken from different angles at different moments into a single composition. A picture that wasn’t meant to look like anything but itself.

My first book New York Downtown Style (bilingual), first introduced to the reader in 2006, is now released in China with a new design by the Hong Kong born graphic designer Lu Zhi-Chang (Simplified Chinese: 陆智昌). Looking back and forth between the first and second covers, I could sense the difference from each other in composition, temperament, and tempo. In Lu's work (the left image), forms are more solid, enigmatic, and cooler. And to Lou Hsin-Mei (Traditional Chinese: 羅心梅), her approaches are more joyful , funkier and sweeter.

Different cultures, different times, different designers – different points of view.