A few days ago, we were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year at the Confucius Institute at the University of South Carolina. There was good food and entertainment to ring in the Year of the Horse. The entertainment potpourri consisted of Beijing Opera, a musical interlude on the saxophone that did not sound particularly Chinese, and a performance by children from the relatively new Chinese language immersion school, East Point Academy. The last performance was perhaps the most impressive. It was certainly encouraging to see young children from South Carolina speaking and singing fluently in Chinese. It was good to know that in at least some areas, this state has become forward thinking. Their intonation in Mandarin was already pitch perfect and they could speak idiomatically. Here is the potential for South Carolina to have an entourage of fluent Chinese speakers, trained from childhood. I imagine they will have a significant edge in doing business as adults if their language skills are maintained.
To celebrate the year of the horse, I ‘ve been reworking some old sketches of horses. The one above was originally sketched in pencil from life when I went out to see the horses at dawn. I still remember the rising sun making a golden halo around the horses red bodies. I made a few paintings from this sketch so today I thought to add colors and retire it from service.
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