Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa Blog

Saginaw art museum - mature audience

2012-01-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

Saginaw art museum - mature audience
art portfolio for mature audience
by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

1. don't wait for tomorrow, 50" x 60", mixed media, 2011

2. hidden dragon crouching tiger, 36" x 48", mixed media, 2011

3. anticipation - money, power and sex, 48" x 36", mixed media, 2012

4. yin and yang - nude, 36" x 65", mixed media, 2011

5. couple, 32' x 40", mixed media, 2011

6. lying nude, 30" x 20", mixed media, 2011

7. reclining nude, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2011

8. sitting nude, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2011

9. sleeping nude, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2011

10. identity search, 36" x 36", mixed media, 2006

11. psalm, 24" x 72", mixed media, 2007

12. love in paris, 48" x 50", mixed media, 2009

Saginaw art museum - general audience

2012-01-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

Saginaw Art Museum - portfolio for general audience
by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

1. great lake evening, 20" x 28", mixed media, 2010

2. great lake cloudy, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2010

3. great lake misty, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2010

4. great lake sunset, 20" x 30", mixed media, 2010

5, great lake frosty, 20" x 30", mixed media, 2010

6. great lake rainy, 22' x 34", acrylic painting, 2010

7. great lake snowy, 20" x 28", mixed media, 2010

8. blue sky eiffel tower paris, 22" x 30", mixed media, 2010

9. blue sky grand hotel taipei, 30" x 22", mixed media, 2010

10. blue sky from east to the west, 29" x 59", mix media, 2010

11. water lily - vertical, 34" x 22", acrylic painting, 1996

12. love in paris, 48" x 50", mixed media, 2009

ArtPrize - LK's art is on display at Minty Keen

2011-09-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

by Lily Li Kostrzewa

If you've never heard of ArtPrize, this year check it out. It is the largest art prize in the world, and it will turn downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan to an art capital tomorrow.

I have a very interesting work at ArtPrize 2011 named “Couple” see link here. It was done by Chinese ink on rice paper first, then I cut the figures and paste them to a very striking background which I made by dripping acrylic paint on a brown paper. This picture tried to depict the intensiveness between a relationship, and the emotional difference between man and woman. The figures were done by monochrome brush lines against a very expressive colorful background to continue my cross-cultural art theme.

ArtPrize takes place in Grand Rapids, Michigan Sep. 21 – Oct. 9, 2011. Detail event information see website here. http://www.artprize.org/event-info

Opening Day (Wed. Sep. 21, 2011): 6pm – 10pm

My work will be in downtown Grand Rapids, Minty Keen, 125 Ottawa NW, Suite 170 ( a local antique shop), store phone 616-551-1613 and my voting code 57321. Detail also can be found on my website www.LilyKostrzewa.com.

New exhibits on display at Art Reach

2011-09-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

August 5 to August 27, 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011 7:04 AM EDT

By Lisa Satayut
Sun Special Writer

Artist Lily Kostrzewa sees the world in a different way.

“I see the future and a vision for the eastern culture and western culture,” she said of her contemporary oil and acrylic painting.

Kostrzewa and local artist Linda Oates were part of an artist reception held at Art Reach Thursday evening.

Kostrzewa’s cross-cultural vision tells a story of how cultures merge.

“I try to bring my own vision. I want to bring the east cultural to the west,” she said.

A single piece of her work could include a famous hotel in Taipei, China and a large architectural building in Chicago.

“For me, my artwork is a visual tool to speak the words that cannot be spoken by creating metaphorical structures, figures and emotion,” she said.

Kostrzewa said her ink-like brushstrokes are deeply rooted in her Chinese culture and her years of training in Chinese art.

“I try to bring this global village vision to everybody hoping people here not only appreciate the art but also understand the different cultures and really enjoy the different cultures merge.”

She was wearing a reconstructed dress her 11-year-old daughter, Isabella, made.

Kostrzewa’s work has been exhibited in Taiwan, Austria, Canada and Greece.

She was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when she was 25 to study art. Kostrzewa currently lives in Mt. Pleasant.

Mt. Pleasant resident Wilma Blackman attended the event with her granddaughter Katie Schrock.

“I think it’s amazing,” she said of one of Kostrzewa’s acrylic pieces titled “Blue Sky Cherry Blossoms-from the east to the west.”

Artist Linda Oates creates high-fire stoneware that she describes as “very user-friendly.”

She uses her own glazes.

“I have the ingredients in a little recipe book,” she said.

Oates, who started as a biology major in botany, began her art career after taking a ceramics class to make pots for her plants in the 1970s.

“From there I was hooked,” she said.

Oates uses a gas-fired kiln and said she fires at about 2,300 degrees.

“It makes a really nice hard finish,” she said.

Mt. Pleasant resident Carole Kennett admired a birdbath piece shaped like a hosta plant.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Kennett said. “It’s a beautiful piece.

The artist reception attracted many art enthusiasts as well as local artists and spilled out onto the sidewalk as people enjoyed the artwork in the display windows and mingled with the artists.

Both artists will have their work displayed at Art Reach through Aug. 27.

URL: http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2011/08/12/entertainment/doc4e444e2b8d149628483924.prt

Art Mural - Asian Garden

2011-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

My kids' school had an annual fund raising event. The theme of this year is about Asia. Event decor committee wanted me to make an Asian Garden Mural as a background. I was given two weeks to make a 20 feet wide and almost 7 feet high mural in my studio. Following pictures are the process.

In the beginning we stabled the huge drop cloth paper on two 10' by 7' wood frames in my studio to make 20' by 7' canvas.

I used charcoal to make outline drawing according to many of my outdoor drawings from Taiwan.

I applied acrylic paints donated by local paint shop for this fund raising event project.

I continued to work from one side to the other, and applied the first layer of colors.

More details applied on after first layer of colors.

More details of Asian building I worked on.

Finished all the details of rock garden.

Applied water lilies on the pond. Also added mountains on the background.

Added Asian bamboos in front of landscape.

After final touch, It was almost finish.

It was time to move to kids' school. We had five guys with a huge covered moving truck to come to help.

The murals were so huge and we had to drive back forth twice to move them.

It is finally set up time, and kids all come to take a look.

My son walked by and very happy to see the mural at the first time.

The whole mural was in the school Gym for the special weekend, and the annual fund raising event just came to the end. It was time to take the mural down.

Journey in Life

2010-12-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

I started with five canvases and painted them all in washed yellow background.... I looked at each of them with many long hours until we come to the common understanding of each journey...

Journey in Life - Mystery

Journey in Life - Courage

Journey in Life - Celebration

Journey in Life - Curiosity

Journey in Life - Two of Us

One day while in church, I listened to Father Loren give a homily on the “Journey in Life”. The homily centered on one’s journey in life and the understanding and acceptance of the full experience of good and bad; without sorrow we would not fully understand joy, and without pain we would not fully understand happiness.

In the homily I caused a picture in my mind of people walking through a tunnel of trees, the tunnel of life. Sometimes the tunnel appears full of glamour and excitement, and at the other times it is full of sorrow and pain. Sometimes we all walk together, and sometimes a person has to walk alone until he reaches the end. I thought about King David talking about life in Psalms 103 “As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower; then the wind blows on it, and it is gone – no one sees it again.” I cherish the many experiences that life has given me and wish to catch the experiences of life in colors.

When I started working on these five canvases, I thought about all my dear friends that have gone through the journey before me and all the young and energetic those come after me. We all have one thing in common - we are all walking through this journey in life.

The above five paintings are my depiction of the journey in life series; it will open public to preview locally from 12/21/2010 to 1/31/2011 at Café American, 1525 Washington St., Midland Town Center, Midland, Michigan (corner of Patrick Rd. and Washington St.) and will travel to New York City from 3/25/2011 to 3/27/2011 at Pier 94 on the Hudson River (between 55^th St. and 12^th Ave.) for the International Art Expo New York City, Solo Gallery.

I don't have a voice but you have

2010-09-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

During the B.P. oil spill in the southern gulf coast regions, I was travelling to Asia with my three children. Everyday I would get on a computer to follow more about this man made disaster. The ocean rescue images surrounding birds were so moving to my heart. I feel I can not get away from their voice in my conscious. After kids went back school and I returned to my art studio. My heart still leads me to the voice. Here are some of the images that came to me. When these birds face the ecological damage and continually pay the price of their lives and wellbeing, I know they would like to say to human: STOP! Stop the deep water drilling. Let the sea and its animal above and below have a safe environment. Although they do not have a voice of power, can we hear their sigh? Partial of these artworks will be displayed at Coleman Senior Center, 415 E. Webster St., Coleman, Michigan from Oct. 6 to Nov. 17, 2010, and partial of the digital artworks will be displayed at Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, 107 W. Fifth St., Los Angeles, California from Nov. 11 to Dec. 4, 2010.

Blue Sky

2010-05-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

“Blue sky smiling at me, nothing but blue sky do I see. Bluebirds singing a song, nothing but bluebirds all day long…” a tune was first sung by Louis Armstrong. The words are upbeat and always seem to put a pleasant thought in my mind. I and my husband even chose it as our first wedding dance song. After a almost 5 month long winter, we suddenly see tree blossoms in all shades of pink with blue sky and blue birds everywhere. It makes our heart just want to sing. Below you are welcome to preview my “Blue Sky” cross-cultural art exhibition:

#1. “Blue Sky Spring Blossoms”

#2. “From the East to the West – Blue Sky Spring Blossoms”

#3. Close up of #2.

#4. Oriental – Blue Sky Spring Blossoms

#5. Western – Blue Sky Spring Blossoms

#6. Passion

Above original paintings are on display in downtown Midland from 5/26 until 7/7, 2010, at “Espresso Milano”, 137 Ashman St., Midland, Michigan (next to congressman Dave camp office), this summer when you visit Midland “tridge” or downtown don’t forget to stop by to view my art. I will greatly appreciate any comment left on my blog.

Twenty Years in America

2010-03-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Twenty years in America - great lakes cherry blossom

By Lihting Li Kostrzewa

This is the year I celebrate my twentieth year in America. I have thought that the best way to celebrate is to design an art exhibition with a theme that combines my Chinese background and my adopted home – the great lakes region. Growing up in Taiwan the “plum blossom” is not only our national flower but also the most depicted flower through Chinese culture. A cherry blossom looks almost like a plum blossom however the cherry requires a colder climate. Growing up in the semi-tropical island of Taiwan, I learned how to paint the plum blossom since I was a young girl. However, I had not seen the cherry blossom until I came to northern Michigan. The northern Michigan cherry blossoms are equally beautiful for artistic purposes.

Followings are seven paintings with title “Great Lakes Cherry Blossom#1 - #7” to depict seven different natural themes of great lakes; cloudy, foggy, frosty, rainy, evening, sunset and snow.

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #1 - cloudy

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #2 - foggy

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #3 - frosty

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #4 - rainy

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #5 - evening

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #6 - sunset

Great Lakes Cherry Blossom #7 - snow

Twenty years ago I was a public school art teacher, and served as an art education director for the thirteen junior high schools of my school district. I held a tenure job, bought a four story condo near a beautiful beach harbor and looked to retirement as most teachers in my school did. However, I was twenty-five years old, longing for the adventure of a life experience, desiring to be an artist and seeing the world in full. One day the opportunity came. A letter from Ohio State University invited me to be a student in its American language program. I packed two suitcases with only two sentences of English I started my new adventure in life.

Going through the ups and downs of life in a foreign country, I was not only learning a different language and a different culture, but also a different logic of thinking. All by God’s grace I received two more advanced art degrees, MA and MFA. After finding all kinds of pay jobs, I have moved around Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania, and eventually settled in Michigan. For a short period of time I was living on a $20 per week food budget and understanding what its mean to be a starving artist. I thought about giving up my art many times. Especially during the time I had three babies in four years. Through a straight seven years of day and night changing diapers and feeding bottles I thought the art world has been far forgotten. But a voice for making art keeps coming back to me. I guess the calling to be an artist since I was nine years old has buried in my sub consciousness. I just need to believe myself. Today I am pleased to announce my new cross-cultural art exhibition – great lakes cherry blossom. From March 10 to April 21, 2010, 7am to 2:30pm, Mon-Sun, at Stacker’s Grill, 4132 N. Saginaw Rd., Midland, Michigan. (across from Dow High School, a breakfast place for locals)
Art Exhibit Video

Cross-cultural artist Lihting Li Kostrzewa

2010-01-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

L. K. is an artist who specializes in contemporary oil and acrylic painting. A cross-cultural artist from Taiwan, artwork has been exhibited in Taiwan, Austria and many states of USA.

Through a lifetime of learning in different art medium, she has much academic training and education, such as a MFA degree in Modern Painting, a MA degree in Computer Graphics, a BFA degree in Chinese Art. She utilizes many techniques to enrich her art. She also has a deep concern for humanity and through her senses she creates art to express human struggles as well as the love of mankind. Her color is expressive from the influence of study in German Expressionism, and her ink-like brush strokes on her painting is deep rooted in her Chinese culture and the years of training in Chinese Art.

She loves nature and spends much time in northern Michigan where she enjoys her cottage by the water. She also shows special interest in the study of Clinical Psychology and its unique relationship with Art. She sees Art with healing power in human emotion as well as neurological function. She would like using her art to bring healing to those with a broken world.

Kostrzewa's original artworks now are available for public to collect at
Gallery-Worldwide.com - expressionism
ArtWanted.com - orientalism
World Wide Art Resources Corporation - cross-cultural art

Drug addiction in the intellectual - Movie reviw of "Permanent Midnight"

2009-11-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Movie Review - Permanent Midnight
By Lihting Li Kostrzewa
“Permanent Midnight”, English, Artisan Entertainment, 88 min., Rated R
“Permanent Midnight” is a 1998 movie directed by David Veloz, based on the autobiography by Jerry Stahl, a successful TV writer who was reduced to working at a McDonalds’ drive-thru window in Phoenix by his crippling addiction to heroin. Stahl rose from a small-time television writer in New York City to his success as a comedy writer for 1980s shows like Thirty Something, Moonlighting, and ALF in Hollywood. He met Kitty, a fellow detoxify survivor, when she drove thru his McDonalds’ window and laid eyes on him. To her, Stahl relates his rise and fall from a bed in a cheap motel. Stahl narrated a miserable tale of his life filled with self-inflicted mental, emotional and physical pain of the abuse of heroin and cocaine. Also, many horrifying scenes are replayed such as when his dysfunctional mother committed suicide he was called back home by his sister to clean up all the blood left on the carpet of the living room, as well as the graphic pervasive drug use and sex under drug influence.
In the movie Stahl’s life is an open book, with chapters about his marriage for convenience to help his British wife get a green card, the birth of his child in a hospital room while he was injecting heroin in the bathroom and missed the moment of his daughter’s birth, and how, ironically, he added on a cocaine’s addiction besides heroin outside the treatment center when he was ordered to clean up his addiction by his new writing job.
In his only chance that he was called in to babysit his own baby, he was driving her all over the town to find drugs. The only thing he had ever cared about was his own “craving”, he has no regards for the baby. Finally, he got pulled over by policemen and arrested on his drowsy state. The baby was flooded with a dirty diaper and surely given to the care of social service.
Casted by Ben Stiller, Maria Bello, Elizabeth Hurley, Jay Paulson, Spencer Garrett, Owen Wilson … (Half.com/movies/permanent midnight, imdb.com/title/tt0120788, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/permanent midnight)
Substance-Related Disorders are abnormal psychology issues I am very much afraid of and was a taboo topic in my upbringing. This movie actually is my first substance-abuse movie to watch and I cannot help to cover my eyes a few times through its pervasive graphics of drug use. However, due to my curiosity of the myth of my grandfather’s death, I decided to take a look at such a dark movie. What makes people walk on such a drug addicted life and choose to self destruct themselves? According to 2003 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), in the past the majority heroin users were 26 or older, however, the new users were age 18 or older (on average of 75 percent) and most were male. An estimated 314,000 Americans used heroin in 2002, and 281,000 persons received treatment for heroin abuse. (Nora Volkow, MD, Director of NIDA)
More than 70 years ago, my mother’s birth father committed suicide attributed to addition of opium according to my mother’s guess. It was a very odd myth for me, because back then he was recent remarried to his coworker, a high school teacher, like himself a Beijing University graduate. Also she had just given birth to a beautiful daughter. However, through this movie it actually gives me a little bit of insight into how a drug addict relates to his new born child. According to my mother, her birth mother was once a most beautiful, highly cultured, wealthy young lady from a very scholarly family in China. Her maternal grandmother was a woman high school principal and her great grandfather was the first person hired by Chin Dynasty to write a book of the history of education in China. Through an arranged marriage my grandfather was hand-picked by my maternal great grandparents to marry their daughter, my grandmother. However, at age 30 she died with her baby (a girl) in the delivery complication. My grandfather gave my mother away to his best friend as adoption and left all my uncles to my maternal great grandmother to care. He then moved to a different province to be a teacher there. I often thought why he decided to kill himself and disregard all the responsibilities of a farther? Is it because the opium addiction? Is shame or guilt? Or is it because of the major depression? By watching this movie of a real story of a successful writer who trashes himself in a fatal stage, I learned the power of drug addiction and the way drugs change a person’s brain and behavior. As Doctor Volkow mentioned in his NIDA report, “Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, and by neurochemical and molecular changes in the brain. Heroin also produces profound degrees of tolerances and physical dependence, which are also powerful motivating factors for compulsive use and abuse. As with abusers of any addictive drug, heroin abusers gradually spend more and more time and energy obtaining and using the drug. Once they are addicted, the heroin abusers’ primary purpose in life becomes seeking and using drugs. The drugs literally change their brains and their behavior.” (NIDA, Volkow, research report, Heroin, 2003)
What is heroin addiction?
“Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained from the opium poppy. It is a "downer" or depressant that affects the brain's pleasure systems and interferes with the brain's ability to perceive pain.
Heroin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on user preference and the purity of the drug. Heroin can be injected into a vein ("mainlining"), injected into a muscle, smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as "chasing the dragon," snorted as powder via the nose.
The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria ("rush") accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes "on the nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system.
Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin's depressing effects on respiration. In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroins to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain.” (drugfree.org/portal/drug_guide/heroin)
I will say the movie portrays the heroin addiction very realistic as the above research I collected verifies. The actor Ben Stiller portrays the drug addiction so hauntingly powerful that it will make the audience shake, a truly riveting performance. Despite some violent sex scenes, I will encourage teenagers to watch this movie before any of them even think about trying heroin. I used to think mass media portrayed the drug and its addiction as a recreational hobby for free spirits. I am glad a movie such as this one truthfully portrays the horror darkness of drug addiction, especially as it depicts a supposed intelligent, talented and wealthy young man, landing to a fatal self destruction.
In the end of this movie it showed he crawled out the drug addiction and finished his memoir. He was interviewed by many TV shows. They would introduce him with these words “in 1980s Jerry Stahl was successfully making $5000 a week as TV screen writer, but his heroin and cocaine habit was $6000 a week.” “He lived in a double life, in the morning people in the office were enjoying their coffee and he was enjoying heroin and syringes to get pleasure and high.” Recorded from his own words “in Hollywood you want to show up with merit every day, so I used “junk” to shoot and jump every day”. But deep inside he had so much self hatred as his wife commented in the movie. For Stahl the craving for “rush” might be the temperate way to ease out the emotional tension and pain but it eventually brought him to permanent midnights. He said the worst thing was even though you got high during the days by every evening you had to face the scare you did not even have money for a PTA potluck or gas bill, and you woke up 3am for a narcotic hell.
Once I was admitted to ER for a serious stomach flu, the nurse gave me two shots of morphine. It was amazing powerful relief of pain. I kind understand of the feeling of “rush”, a warm, pleasant relief. “However, patients with strong pain who need opiates to function have few if any problems leaving opiates after their pain is resolved. This may be because the patient in pain is simply seeking relief of pain and not the “rush” sought by the addict.” (NIDA, Volknow, Research Report, Heroin, 2003)
And I hope my grandfather’s addiction is the result of life’s unbearable pain after my grandmother’s tragic death. However, 70 years ago there was no Detoxification treatment existed, such as Methadone treatment which started 30 years ago and Buprenophine treatment which only started recently. I guess by ending his life, it might be the easy way to get out of the addiction and shame. If so I will feel much better about the way he died. I know I can never change the things I cannot change but I would like to think he might still have the best intention for my mother and my uncles. It might well be permanent midnight for him to live.

Jimmy Carter: The words of God do not justify discrimination and abuse wrongly backed by doctrine are damaging society, argues the former US president

2009-11-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

* Jimmy Carter

"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status ..." (Article 2, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)

I have been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief - confirmed in the holy scriptures - that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries. The male interpretations of religious texts and the way they interact with, and reinforce, traditional practices justify some of the most pervasive, persistent, flagrant and damaging examples of human rights abuses.

At their most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in Britain and the United States. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for everyone in society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and out-dated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive area to challenge.

But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights. We have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

Although not having training in religion or theology, I understand that the carefully selected verses found in the holy scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar Biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

At the same time, I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted holy scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

I know, too, that Billy Graham, one of the most widely respected and revered Christians during my lifetime, did not understand why women were prevented from being priests and preachers. He said: "Women preach all over the world. It doesn't bother me from my study of the scriptures."

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

• Jimmy Carter was US president from 1977-81. The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

The Observer

12 July 2009

© John Mark Ministries. Articles may be reproduced in any medium, without applying for permission
(provided they are unedited, and retain the original author/copyright information - and perhaps a reference to this website :-)!

Babette's Feast - through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist

2009-11-16T07:58:00.000-08:00

Babette's Feast
by Valerie O'Connell
Babette's Feast was first written in English as a short story. It was originally published in 1953 in the Ladies Home Journal. It was translated into Danish for radio performances and subsequently translated by the author Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) into Danish as part of a collection of five short stories entitled Anecdotes of Destiny which appeared in 1958.
In 1987 Gabriel Axel directed the film adaptation of the story which starred Stephanie Audran, Jean Phillipe Lafont and Gudmar Wivesson. In conjunction with Out of Africa (1985), directed by Sydney Pollack, and The Immortal Story (1968), directed by Orson Welles, these films achieved the widespread fame denied this outstandingly gifted literary artist in her lifetime.
Karen Christence Dinesen, Baroness Blixen-Finecke, was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. Her family was well-to-do and aristocratic. From her army officer/writer father she inherited story-telling talent, charisma and an adventurous spirit. Though her early interest was art, which she studied in Copenhagen and Europe, her writing career was to span seventy-eight years. Her most famous work, Out of Africa, describes her life in Kenya where she managed a coffee plantation for seventeen years. In this compelling autobiography she displays the lyrical and poetic ability and the sensitiveness and perceptiveness towards people which are present in many of her works, including Babette's Feast.
Blixen's stories are generally set in Denmark, Norway or Italy. She drew inspiration from the Bible, the Arabian Nights, the works of Homer, the Icelandic sagas and the fairly tales of Hans Christian Anderson. A writer of the Romantic genre, her themes often included love and dreams, nature, the supernatural, and satire and fantasy. They were frequently set in the European aristocratic eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Babette's Feast is regarded by some as an elaborate allegory relating to Christianity, by others as a many-layered work which rewards the viewer with new insights and delights at each repeated experience, and by others still as a fine, light-hearted comedy. Like many grand narratives, this is a deceptively simple story, exquisitely translated into a fine film. Having enjoyed the film version several times, my discussion will inevitably be illuminated by the visual experience.
In Babette's Feast, the many symmetries and contrasts employed, not only serve to fine tune the comedy aspects, but are also powerful devices which heighten perceptions into the themes and human nature being presented. A 'glance back' at the mores and customs of the time - a historical perspective - is sharpened by their use. Major themes of the story are eternal and have preoccupied humans over generations: love and death, the immanent and the eternal, possession and relinquishment.
As we begin the analysis of the tale we are reminded of Isak Dinesen's statement that she saw herself primarily as a story-teller, a fortaellerske, in the traditional oral sense of the word. This understanding illuminates the persuasiveness and dramatic tension of her narratives.
The story is set in a small village in Jutland on the west coast of Norway. It is an isolated and lonely part: the era is the late nineteenth century. The main characters are two now elderly Norwegian spinsters, Phillipa and Martine, daughters of a priest/prophet Protestant father who followed a strict puritanical rule. He had been loved and feared by the villagers and, since his death, the daughters had carried out father' s traditions of selflessness, the single life and good works. A seemingly discordant note in this rather Spartan existence was the presence in the house of a French maid, Babette. (A major contrast of the story is that between the ethical life represented by the puritan North and the esthetic represented by the sensuous South).
Phillipa and Martine had been beautiful young girls, 'flowering fruit trees', who attended no balls or parties, only church. Here we have the presence of natural earthly beauty and the denial of its full expression. In father's words, 'earthly love and marriage are of scant worth and merely empty illusion'. The village is stark - all white and grey; the weather is wet and wild. It often snows. The villagers dress in simple, subdued clothing; their homes are spartan and functional and their lives are regulated by simple and familiar routines. They come together to attend meetings, hear a spiritual message and sing their familiar hymns in the Pastor's house. His picture adorns the wall.
Symmetrical chapters describe two encounters from the 'other' world outside ( the esthetic sensual) in which the lives of Phillipa and Martine and two young men touch in a brief encounter. One is a soldier, Lorens, from a noble family, who is dazzled by the physical beauty of Martine and the unworldly purity of her life. The other is Achille Papin, director of the Paris Opera. He hears Phillipa sing and his vision soars - he has found a new 'Diva'. Both men are seized by unimagined dreams of a life unknown in their everyday world; one in which they will be transformed. However, Lorens and Achille are constrained to relinquish these dreams - the former because of his felt unworthiness, the latter at father's request with which Phillipa complies. As well as great contrasts the idea of transcendence, the third element, appears superimposed on the ethical and the sensual/esthetic. This mystical resolution recurs throughout the story. Both men are forever changed by their 'brief encounters' at the isolated village.
Many years later, Babette enters the story, introduced to the astonished sisters one stormy night by a letter from none other than Achille Papin. In desperate circumstances, widowed and caught up in Civil War in Paris, Babette has fled France. Her friend Achille has sent her to the sisters. His letter reveals that his memories of Phillipa's goodness and grace are undimmed by time.
Babette becomes servant to the household and takes over the cooking being 'tutored', step-by-step, in the method of preparing ale-bread soup (an implied contrast to the imagined 'wicked extravagances' of French fare). Babette remains humble in servant hood but contrives by shrewd bargaining to reduce household costs and make profit for her employers. Here we see a strong parallel with the role of Christ as 'suffering servant' supporting the Christian interpretation of the allegory.
Meanwhile, the erstwhile dutiful and loyal 'flock' begin to quarrel among themselves, reinterpreting past relationship difficulties and grievances with new bitterness. The sisters, in contrast, remain ever constant in reminders to them of a 'better way', invoking the beloved pastor 's injunctions.
At this point, Blixen introduces the catalyst to the unfolding of events which will dramatically impact the villagers' lives: the relatively innocent intrusion of the 'otherness' of the sensual world to which they are strangers. Babette wins the lottery! 10,000 francs! All three, Babette, Martine and Phillipa, are equally shocked but respond according to their true natures. Believing that Babette would now leave them, the sisters echo the biblical words: 'The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.' There is no hint of their sadness. Babette conceives a plan of extraordinary dimensions.
Aware that the sisters had been planning a small anniversary celebration in honour of the birthday of their father ('no food, just tea and coffee') Babette conceives a plan. She asks the sisters for permission to prepare and pay for a real French meal for the anniversary dinner. Perceiving the earnest genuineness of the request, the sisters cannot refuse. The exquisite comedy in this tale begins to unfold as the sisters uncomprehendingly but with mounting apprehension view the extent and detail of the preparations for the event, beginning with Babette's trip to Paris to organise requirements and culminating in her return with a veritable boatload of boxes apparently to do with the meal. A beautiful contrast is presented between the masterful command of Babette over the unfolding enterprise and the decreasing command of the alarmed sisters. This is visually demonstrated in the film by the soldierly procession of locals under Babette's orders, bearing 'strange' goods via wheelbarrows from the beach right into the kitchen.
In shock, Martine realises that the thing she is beholding in one of the crates is 'a large and terrible tortoise'. She backs out of the kitchen, speechless. This is high comedy involving both the transposition of control and authority, identity confusion and the exchange of the familiar and predictable for all the horrors of the unknown. Babette has moved from servant to mistress in her domain of the kitchen which has become the centre of witchery.
Martine and Phillipa meet with the villagers to confess their guilt and sorrow over the terrible event about to happen which they liken to a 'Satanic sabbath'. The villagers rally and the decision is reached that they will partake of the meal but that not a single comment in reference to what is before them will pass their lips. It will be 'as if we never had any sense of taste'. Common danger has restored their previous unity. This fine piece of strategy reminds one of parallel historic instances of powerful passive protest: Gandhi and the tactic of fasting and African Americans in 1955 who protested against segregation on the buses by boycotts of the transport system. It seems that, when the direst of threats imposes itself even on the simplest of communities like the congregation in Jutland, the very simplicity is able to generate a creative response of sophistication and ingenuity. Again the counterpoint between the 'natural' meal and the 'unnatural' response.
The drama is heightened by Dinesen as she conflates the distant past with the present in the form of reintroducing Lorens, now an illustrious general, who has lived in France for many years and attained the highest success. His aunt, Mrs Loewenholm, who was a resident of the village during the Pastor's time having received an invitation, has asked if her nephew could attend with her. As they arrive in their carriage, Lorens muses on the past. Though he has attained great worldly success, he wonders if he forsook the truth for the lie so long ago. He questions the real purpose of his life.
The snowy weather, representing the cold ideal of purity from which he had fled so long ago, contrasts with the 'witchery' being practised by Babette in the kitchen. The hymn with which the villagers (now seated), begins: 'Take no thought for food or raiment' apposite another hymn: 'Woulds't Thou give a stone, a reptile to Thy pleading child for food? ' seems to conjoin the sensual and the spiritual.
Blixen demonstrates her supremely skilful and effective use of symmetry and contrasts throughout the whole of this tale. The reflectiveness of Lorens, the calm agreement among the gathered diners contrast beautifully with the intense and focussed preparation of the meal by Babette who remains 'hidden' in the kitchen. Solely in command, focussed and sure, she has no questions to ponder; she works in silence.
The feast table is resplendent with silver candles, fancy serviettes and beautiful china; the general is also resplendent in uniform as he tastes the first wine to be served - the Amontillado! 'the finest wine I have ever tasted!' which is followed by real turtle soup and Blinis Demidoff. At the general's astonished exclamation of 'incredible!' the other diners sit quietly eating and drinking with blank and disinterested expressions 'as if they had been doing so every day for thirty years'.
A fine irony here is again demonstrated in the exchange of roles. The provincials' conduct is that of consummate men of the world, while the worldly General gasps and splutters like a yokel. Blixen's ability to provide more than one layer of interpretation at a time is signalled in the remark of one of the women in regard to the champagne which she wonderingly describes as a kind of lemonade. This is the true 'otherworldliness' masked by the appearance of sophistication. As the exotic food and drink are consumed, the company refers only to the state of the weather or remembrances of the goodness and wisdom of the pastor. Even for Lorens' aunt, the bonds of community and spiritual loyalty are stronger than those of kinship. She replies to Lorens' remark on the splendour of the meal that, 'the storm has died down'.
In the entire tableau of the feast, the contrasts are sculpted with restrained artistry and absolute believability. The impact is heightened by the significance of the underlying themes: good and evil, the sacred and profane, the importance of loyalty, indomitable faith, simplicity versus profundity. The real storyline, however, turns on the question of 'self' and the life purpose.
As the effects of the uncommon celebration work their magic on the assemblage of common humanity sharing in the feast, these polarities begin to blur and the distance between seeming opposites fades. Bitterness is replaced by sweet exchanges, Phillipa sings as of yore with a pure voice and the company silently, peacefully, listen - feeling, remembering. Martine and Lorens gaze deeply and lovingly at each other, two who had agonised over a past illicit relationship kiss, other conflicts are touched and resolved.
The concluding highlights of the story are the speech of the General in which he expresses the words of the Pastor spoken so long ago, illuminated now for him. He says: 'Mercy and truth, my friends, have met together, Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another'. The meaning of his words is that morality and pleasure, the ethical and the sensual, come together within the mystical experience. Babette's communication to the sisters reveals that she was the famous chef of the Cafe Anglais - an artist who had longed for an opportunity to express her creative genius. She tells them that the dinner cost all of the ten thousand francs - that she is now poor and that the village and the people are her home.
Phillipa identifies with Babette, in the sense that she, too, is a great artist. She assures Babette that her food will one day delight the angels in heaven just as her own voice will ring out in eternity. Martine knows that she will forever 'live' in the heart of the General. At each meal she knows that he will dine with her in spirit. Thus is the resolution of this story beautifully crafted by Dinesen.
As a religious allegory it is rich as it parallels the solemn and memorable event of Christ's Last Supper, through which, by his humility and renunciation, he 'dies that we might live', the story of the poor widow who gave her all and the subsequent value Jesus attached to her gift, and the general relationship between worldliness and godliness.
As a comedy it is rich, abounding in situations of opposites and parallels which provide exquisitely humorous cameos: champagne which 'tastes just like lemonade'. As a many-layered work dealing with the issues of who we are and what our true destiny in life is, Karen Blixen displays her intense interest and deep understandings of this theme.
Bibliography
Babette's Feast, video recording, release of 1988 picture, Orion Home Video, New York, 1988.
Books and Writers, Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen (online). available 20/3/02, http://www.kirjasto/, sci.fi/blixen, htm.
Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature, Virpi Zuck, Editor-in-chief, Niels Ingwerson and Harald S. Naess, Advisory editors, Greenwood Press, New York.
Karen Blixen's Life (online), available 7/3/02, wysiwyg:1/7 http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/9334/page 2 html.
Langbaum, R., The Gayety of Vision,: A Study of Isak Dinesen's Art, Chatti and Windus, London, 1964.
Manneche, P., Denmark: A SocialLaboratory, Oxford University Press, Copenhagen, 1939.
Spotlight Reviews (online), available 7/3/02, Amazon.com:buying info: Babette's Feast, wysiwyg:// 16/http://www.amazon.co...ef_pd_v_1/002-4686772-5178427.
http://www.ssn.flinders.edu.au/scanlink/nornotes/vol6/articles/babette.htm
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>From a net friend:
A correction to Valerie O'Connell's summary and discussion of Babette's Feast on http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/www.karenblixen.com/babette.htlm:
The story takes place in Denmark. The story is set in a small village in Jutland on the weat coast of Denmark - not on the west coast of Norway. The two spinsters were Danish - not Norwegian. It might not mean much to Americans to not distinguish between the three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) - but it does to Scandinavians.
~~~
For more on Babette's Feast visit http://www.karenblixen.com/babette.html
~~~
>From another netfriend (this is a popular article!):
There are two additional errors in Valerie Oconnell's commentary. The soup they eat is TURTLE soup. A Turtle can swim in the sea., whereas a tortoise is a land based creature and does not swim. They are two different creatures.
Imminent is spelled with an i not an a.
~~~
And further, from another friend:
'A comment to Valerie O'Connell's article on Karen Blixen's short story "Babette's Feast". The two "corrections" to her article having to do with the setting of the short story must have been written by people who haven't read the story. Babette's Feast is indeed set in Norway, as is stated in the first line of the story: "In Norway there is a fjord...
named Berlevaag". Jutland, however, is in Denmark, but is as far as I can see not mentioned anywhere in "Babette's Feast".'

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Part 1 - femanal conversation through women's society role

2009-11-13T10:26:00.000-08:00

My name is Lihting, I was born in a small town of Taiwan (R.O.C.) in 1965, the youngest of five children. Both my parents moved from China to Taiwan right after WWII.
Since I was nine years old, I have dreamed about being an artist. I remember one day I saw some Cézanne paintings in one of my father’s magazines, I soon copied them with watercolor on papers. A love for art has ever since become my devotion. After receiving my BFA degree and teaching certificate from National Taiwan Normal University, I taught art in junior high school for three years and also served as an Art Education director of the thirteen junior high schools in my school district. In 1990 I received an opportunity to come to Ohio State to study American Language, so I quit my tenured teaching job and came to the US to pursuit my dream. Eventually I went on to receive art scholarships to finish both my MA degree in Computer Graphics and MFA degree in Painting in USA. For years I have worked as a computer artist, designer and art professor in both industrial and academic settings.
Currently, I am a full time professional artist with my own art studio in Michigan.
After I came to US, I start realizing women under tremendous pressure in this society. It seems to women have to struggle many different roles and wear many different hats to be so called equal. On the other hand, women here have very little help in their variety roles, they almost have to force themselves to be superwomen to survive. For almost 20 years to stay in America I have become such an independent superwoman, taking three young kids shopping grocery, fixing house, cooking meals, doing laundry at the same time managing my career. My Taiwanese male friends like to joke me as "fabulous American woman". In the society I came from women seem to only need to be intellectually equal but leaving all the physical hard labor to men. Women have their voice to be heard but men provide a shoulder for them to cry. Women can freely show their tenderness and men have a common understanding of their role to protect women. Women can be treated like ladies with respect without fighting arm and leg. However, I have learned here you either fight as tough as men to be treated equal or you are just to be considered as classic weak women could be ordered around. When I first realized how many old fashioned men are still rooted in their ways to view and think of women in many small towns of America, I have painted a series of painting to talk about the strong language of femanal conversation through women's society role. I have called on respect to women in this society. I believe love is all about respect among the mankind. Somewhere both men and women have lost their respect to each other in this society..... Men have been so insecured of their dominated role in this society especially the older ones, and women might also have lost their natural quality in such modern time. I often to be reminded the WWII poster how American women joining the force to involving in building weapons and cars. It is nice to see women finally get in the working force, however women still carry all the traditional domestic roles. The expectation for women in this society is suicidal for marriage. How can we build true respect towards women in American society and have a better understanding of their roles? How the money or capitalism actually play the role to contribute such disrespect? I wonder.....