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…

The Tea Tastes Like a Volcanic Eruption 嚐起來像火山爆發味道的茶

In this morning, while drinking a cup of Lapsang Souchong tea, a black tea from Wu-Yi region in China, its smoky, tobacco ash-like aroma and flavor reminded me of the the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull on Tuesday, April 13.

Volcanic gases and silicate ash has spread across much of Europe, bring air travel across the continent to a near standstill. My Finnish friends who've got stuck in Geneva for a few days, are considering taking a bus back to Helsinki. But how long is the journey going to take? Three whole days!

Being a frequent traveler, I have plenty of stories to tell about being stuck at the airport. The experiences are not pleasant but I use the time to catch up on my reading. Even so, I still prefer reading calmly in my cozy apartment while sipping on my hot volcano-flavored tea.

今天早上隨意喝著一杯來自中國武夷山區的拉普山小種紅茶，它那帶著一股濃熏雪茄煙灰的味道不禁讓我聯想起四月十三號在冰島發生的Eyjafjallajokull火山爆發。

火山的瓦斯味及灰墟已籠罩了大部分的歐洲，導致洲際航線幾乎癱瘓。我滯留在日內瓦多日歸心似箭的芬蘭朋友們， 局然想要搭巴士返回赫然爾辛基。那可得足足花上三天的時間耶。

經常旅行的我，滯留機場對我來說已是家常變飯。雖然這樣的經驗不足以為道，可是我隨遇而安，恰好可以利用這段空檔來讀讀那些該讀但還沒時間閱讀的書。不過話雖如此，我還是寧可待在自己的小屋，一邊靜靜閱讀一邊細細品嚐那股帶勁的火山味的紅茶。

Lilacs With No Scent 沒有香氛的丁香

I'm kind of blue today.

My tooth, after ten days of treatment, is still hurting me slightly.

I just found out that, from the outdated New York Times, I missed the concert of Atoms for Peace, a side project that is led by Radiohead's main singer Thom Yorke.

Moreover, the French lilacs that I bought two days ago are still too shy to release their fragrance.

Oh well, according to popular wisdom, you can't have everything, and there's a good deal of truth in that, the balance of human lives is constantly swinging back and forth between what's gained and what's lost. 

Without the scent of lilacs, it's still nice to play Atoms for Peace's music and let Thom Yorke's beautiful voice fill my room.

今天有點憂鬱。

牙痛在將近十天療程之後還是隱隱作痛；

從過期的紐約時報中得知我竟然錯失了電台總司令的主唱Thom Yorke所領導的Atoms for Peace樂團的音樂會;

更可悲的事，兩天前買的法國丁香到現在還害羞的遲遲不肯綻放芬芳。

嗯， 就這樣囉。“你不能擁有一切”的致理名言在某些程度上來說還是有它的道理：平衡的人生經常是在得失之間搖擺的。

Reading a Book by Smelling Its Ink 聞墨閱讀

Part of my happiness and imagine depends on books, so when I couldn't find The Double by the Portuguese novelist and journalist José Saramago from the piles of books scattered everywhere in my apartment, I came to realize that it was about time to do spring cleaning.

However, the magnitude of the task before me was quite simply overwhelming: about fifty books were piled up on a Chinese antique cabinet; thirty books were lying on a long fragile bamboo bench; six books I ordered from Amazon.com were still in the boxes; more stacks of books occupied in every corner of my apartment.

After my bookshelf is, more or less, tidy and exudes ink odour, a sort of intelligent smell, which one has to breath in for one's body to be purified and one's soul to be exalted, suddenly I feel so compulsed to read them all to assure that I'm illumined and not deluded.

Call me crazy, but for the sack of saving time and saving energy, won't it be nice if we can read a book by putting down our noses and smelling the ink between pages?

我的幸福和創意部分取掘於書本。因此當我再也無法在從散落四處的書籍中找出我想閱讀的葡萄牙作家José Saramago 的The Double，我不得不承認該是春季大掃除的時刻了。
說來容易，但是面眼前排山倒海的書本確是得花上好些時間及精力來整理：五十本晾在中式古董木箱上；三十本躺在搖搖欲晃的長竹凳；剛從訂購的六本書還乖乖的待在紙箱中；成批成批的文件脫序地散佈在我住處的個個角落。
當大功告成，書架漸漸的流露出印墨的味道–––那種帶有智慧氣息足以讓人清淨身體，提升靈性的香味， 讓我突然有股想要及刻飽覽羣書的衝動來擔保我不傻，我還聰明。
算我是瘋人一個吧。如果能把鼻子湊在書頁中來聞墨閱讀，那到不失為一帖時間及能源節流的妙方， 不是嗎？

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

In the Mood for Indigo

On the market in Sa Pa, Vietnam, I strolled down the narrow alleys among a crowd of indigenous women in different shades of blue.

Suddenly there were these Black H'mong girls in front of me. They seemed enchanted by the sky, gazing upon it solemnly, as if there was a god smiling at them.

When the rice-scented breeze rustled through their tribal garb to lap against their sun-kissed skin, I quietly took a picture of them and immersed myself in indigo melancholy.

photo by della, vietnam

In the Mood for White

When it's snow all around, 

you've just got to stay still 

until you get used to the white.

Gradually,

You'd smell the scent of white 

in your hair, 

in your collar, 

in your heart.

photo by della

To All My Loved Ones...

To all my loved ones...

Have fun with "One Mighty Drop", a perfume campaign created by Fragrance Foundation. 

Love to see your design too!

In the Mood for Night

I woke up in the middle of night. All was silent except the occasional whine of truck tires in the distance. The street lamps lining the shopping street outside cast their artificial light into my room, out of the blue, I thought of J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye ( 麥田捕手 in Chinese), who dies a few days ago.

"phony" and loneliness and rebellion and adolescent and drunkenness and enigma and idealist and New York and wanderer and stream of consciousness...

He is as dark as night, but smells like teen.

photo by Della Chuang

In the Mood for Rain

The raindrops on the windows in my New York apartment were like strings of pearls. Eyeing them in a melancholic mood, I suddenly thought of the unusual, endless rain in California where I just visited last week.

The raindrops also reminded me of the rain in the cities where I have visited:

The rain in Kyoto. 

The rain in Hanoi. 

The rain in Paris. 

The rain in Stockholm. 

The rain in Taipei.

The rain in Lausanne.

The rain in Dublin.

The rain in Hong Kong. 

The rain in Lisboa.

Et cetra, Et cetra.

To me, the rain of each city has its own tactile sensation. Take Lisboa as an example: it smells like green olive trees swaying in the breeze and the blue waves of the Pacific Ocean rolling in. 

Photo by Della Chuang, Lisboa.

In the Mood for Light

In Helsinki, light is the sensation of sea breezes and clear crystals, pure and crisp with a hint of birch dancing with violet, mandarin, and cardamom.

By the way, don't you think this image look like a window display by Van Cleef & Arpels, a French jewelry company renowned for its nature-inspired design?

Blink!

Photo by Della Chuang, Finland

Taste the Rainbow in the Alps

 After sipping a few glasses of white and red wine, Della's photos were getting blurry and blurry.

We had an unforgetful New Year Eve dinner at Gasthaus Speiserestaurant in the Swiss Alps.

The eight-course meal, created by the talented chef Friedrich Zemanek, resembled a GESAMTKUNSTWERK, addressed to all the senses and  was served by all sorts of auxiliary arts relating to the flower arrangements, the dinnerware and the cutlery, and the visual presentation of the edible. As for the food itself, it completely aroused our appetite s through its colors, smell, consistency and even sound (e.g. crispy aliments).

Though it was a cold starry night, the taste of the food brought us joy --- like a warm and colorful rainbow in the blue sky.

I am passing the warmest regards to you from the chef Zemanek --- Happy New Year.

In the Mood for Red

 photo by della chuang

To the fashion designer Bill Bass, "Red is the ultimate cure for sadness." And to the painter Wassily Kandinsky, red is very living, lively and agitated, it posses an immense force, it is a movement in oneself.

As for me, red is like the winter sunshine on my face.

Red...

feels warm like velvet

tastes strong like vodka
 

smells spicy like apple cider with loads of cinnamon and clove

sounds merry like the Xmas jingle bells

Yes. Merry Xmas, my dear friends.

In the Mood for Blue

photo by della chuang

Which country

looks blue

sounds blue

feels blue

tastes blue

smells blue?

Finland it is.

Fragrance of the Nordic Air

Bliss --- today is my first day out for a walk after I twisted my right ankle while doing a head stand. My foot had sent up a white flag, and I was therefore like a bird in a cage for the past two weeks.

It was – 17 degree Celsius (1.4  degree Fahrenheit) in the morning. Stepping out with my winter boots, I took a deep inhale and allowed fragrance of the Nordic air to enter and penetrate my Being. I stuffed my gloved hands in my pockets, curled my head to my chest, and set foot into the woods.

The solid crunch of my winter boots against the white snow filled the crisp air with a relaxing and chanting sound, which scratched a primal itch that reminded me of a delicious smell --- the aroma of Swiss dark chocolate waffles.

I slowly and deeply took an inhale: mmmmh, w-a-f-f-l-e. Then I crunched loud and crunched merry deep into the white Finnish woods.

Design in Nature

photo by della chuang

I am still suffering from a jet lag and a cold that I caught
in New York.

Not being able to tell anything meaningful, I would like to
show you something wonderful.

I always feel humbled by the design in nature, and I do not believe anything I can design can compare to the beauty of the natural world...