Hope Dies Last
Perseverance and deliberate practice, uncompromising artists who express their identity
Welcome to the fourth volume of Morning Pages, a newsletter sharing inspirations at the intersection of culture and identity, creative experiments, and studio updates.
Happy mid-autumn festival.
I still remember my first mid-autumn festival in the US. I just moved from China two months ago and was deep in the culture shock and nostalgia. While walking home alone after a long day at school, I saw the full moon and realized that today is the mid-autumn festival. I did not have Chinese roommates to celebrate the festival with nor knowing where to buy mooncakes. On my way home, I started singing to myself the song: “但愿人长久.”
The song's lyrics come from a poem written by 苏轼/Su Shi, an important figure and prolific poet in the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). Here is my favorite line: 人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。
Humans have sorrow and joy; they part or meet again; The moon is bright or dim and she may wax or wane. There has been nothing perfect since the olden days.
Ten years ago, I would have described where I am now as a completely unrealistic dream. Every day I feel incredibly grateful for the work that I get to do. Growing a business and advancing my coaching expertise still takes time. However, it is not different from the path I took to jump start my design career, looking for many ways to learn, working hard to close the aspiration gap, and giving it my all.
In coaching, I support many clients to develop skills they hope to master. I love helping them develop strategies to reach their big goals and celebrate their consistent efforts.
Angela Duckworth said it well in her book “Grit — The Power of Passion and Perseverance.”
Write the goal in pen and the strategies in pencil.
As with any long journey, detours are inevitable. Goals can sometimes feel too lofty – too big, too distant to either believe or achieve. Setting stepping stone objectives along the way – ones that stretch yet are still achievable - is crucial to achieving your ambitious goal.
Keep your eyes on the stars, but keep your feet on the ground.
Kiki Xue, Fashion & Art Photographer
Kiki Xue/薛炜 (@kikikixue) was born in Chengdu, China. Currently, he's living and working as a fashion and art photographer in Paris. Kiki Xue has exhibited many of his works in Paris and won the Photo Vogue Festival prize in Milan.
Kiki Xue's ethnic fashion photography immediately caught my eye. It highlighted the exquisite beauty of clothing from many ethnicities: Mongolian, Tibetan, and Miao. His work brilliantly conveys the appreciation of fashion through a variety of cultural influences.
Zhiqing Xu, Artist
When I was actively painting live figures by ink, I often searched for inspiration online. I stumbled upon Zhiqing Xu, a Chinese artist who painted lots of folk dancers using ink. The figures were painted based on the academic style of gestural drawing. The lines are so expressive that it captured the rhythm of dance motion perfectly.
Frida Kahlo, Exhibition & Curator Talk
The long-awaited Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving exhibition is open to the public at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It’s an exhibition of the beloved artist’s personal items borrowed from La Casa Azul, Kahlo’s home. At the time of Frida Kahlo’s death in 1954, a treasure trove of the artist's highly personal items—including jewelry, clothing, and prosthetics—were locked away. 50 years later, these belongings were unsealed—now they’re on view for the first time on the West Coast.
If you’re not able to visit in person, the museum curator recently did an online talk about the exhibition and the show's highlights.
How you do anything is how to do everything.
— T. Harv Eker
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Yuan Studio is a space that explores the intersections of global cultures and identities. Currently, the studio is incubating a series of creative projects, such as Morning Pages, and offering coaching for people of color to harness the power of their creativity & leadership potentials. You can reach out on Twitter and LinkedIn.