Mary Gow | ArtSpirit7

February 5, 2011

How Do You Accept Gifts/Food Chinese-Style?

When you are a guest in someone’s home in China, one thing to remember is never accept food or gifts without first refusing a few times. Wendy Abraham explains it well in Chapter 18, Ten Things Never to Do in China in her Chinese for Dummies book for learning Chinese:

“No self-respecting guests immediately accept whatever may be offered to them in someone’s home. No matter how much they may be eager to accept the food, drink, or gift, proper Chinese etiquette prevents them from doing anything that makes them appear greedy or eager to receive it, so be sure to politely refuse a couple of times.”

Have you seen this dance of the “no thank yous” first hand?

February 3, 2011February 3, 2011

Is it a Red Envelope Day?

By Mary Gow, Promise of the Red Envelope

Happy New Year!

This is a painting I created that includes a shredded red envelope. It’s the kind of envelope I would get from my parents on special occasions like my birthday or college graduation. This piece is titled “Promise of the Red Envelope,” because when I was growing up, I felt a certain sacredness about the red envelope. As though it had some special powers. And my acceptance of it from my parents implied obedience. So why did I tear this one up? For art’s sake.

January 31, 2011February 3, 2011

A Shortcut for Winning Composition

Light at City Hall — Rule of Thirds: focus on any of the four places the lines overlap. Photo by Mary Gow

It was at the Maine Photographic Workshops that I “got” it about composition. My vision got a tune-up there.

I had written about The Rule of Three in writing. Well, in composition there’s The Rule of Thirds (explained quite well at betterphoto.com. It works in painting as well as photography. Think of a grid of three across and three down, creating nine rectangles. Place your subject where any of the lines cross. See the grid.

January 25, 2011January 22, 2011

The Main Thing I Learned at The Maine Photographic Workshops

In the middle of an intensely hot August when I was living in Austin, Texas, I treated myself to a week long workshop on “Creativity in Photography” at The Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, Maine.

Of note, in 2007 The Maine Photographic Workshops and the International Film and Video Workshops merged to form the Maine Media College.

Rockport reminded me of Louisiana (where I grew up) – big trees and very green, with the added pluses of more hills, ocean and not needing an air conditioner. I rented a bike for the week, and food, room and board was included in the package. I stayed in an old rickety Victorian house and to my surprise, my roommate was a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News.

Through the week we had various assignments. One was to use plastic Holga cameras and think of new ways to take pictures. The teacher encouraged us to smear the camera lens with Vaseline.

The main thing that I learned from the workshop was something simple yet changed the way I composed my photographs. It wasn’t the first time I had heard of the Golden Meanwhich is the ratio 1:1.618034. At the workshop I saw it in practice more than ever before. There is a dynamism in the almost 5/8ths (roughly 8:13 ratio), in framing slightly off-center.