Monkey in Bloom

One of the most difficult things about teaching abroad is how difficult and expensive it has become to go home.  When Kim and I first got to Shanghai it was affordable and workable, but two kids and never ending airfare price hikes later, we stayed in Asia for the holidays.

If I had known what an artist's paradise that Bali would be, I would have certainly tried to make it there sooner.  We stayed in the town of Ubud, which is filled with shops selling a ridiculously wide variety of the most beautiful art, craft, and everything in between.

While the local crafts were truly amazing in themselves, some of the unique contemporary artists are doing some absolutely mind blowing stuff.  I was awestruck by the work of Ketut Karyana, who has created some amazingly beautiful animal abstractions for his Evolution series, using watercolors and ink.



This piece is called Evolution: Iguana, it was the one that first caught my attention, and I'm so looking forward to sharing these pieces as we move into our experimental water color projects with the foundations classes this Spring.

His gallery is on view here, but the online images just does not do the work justice.