Painting Lessons

When I was a couple of months pregnant with Cynthia, My mother said to me, "I found you an art teacher. He will come to your apartment once a week and give you lessons on Chinese Painting."
"What, ma?" I said.
"I found a great artist . . ."
"I thought that was what you said," I said.

I didn't know why my mother thought that I needed to have lessons on painting when I was pregnant.
Am I missing something here?

I have already told you that my mother was always trying to find somethings for me to do during the summers when I was young. Remember, I mentioned to you my French lessons, my piano lessons, my guitar lessons . . .
But I wasn't a teenager anymore. 
However, I had always loved Art and had little opportunities to have lessons. So . . .
"Okay." I said, "Thank you, ma."

I started taking Chinese Brushwork lessons, once a week, from this wonderful, knowledgeable, and patient artist, Mr. Chow. I had no idea if he had any connections with my family, or how my mother knew him.

So, once a week, on one of the weekday evenings, Mr. Chang would come to my apartment and give me lessons at my dining room table.

He specialized in birds. But, every Chinese painter had to start with the Fours (the four kinds of paintings) -
     The Bamboo
     The Iris
     The Plum blossom
     The Mum

I, of course, being brought up in China, had known how to use the Chinese brush. And I do love paintings.
So, we did lots and lots of bamboos - young bamboos, old bamboos, bamboos in the wind, bamboos in the rain, bamboos in the snow . . .
We did a number of plum blossoms, red one, pink ones . . . Frontal view, side view, back view . . .
And we did a number of irises.

Unfortunately, I had to stop taking lessons when it was close to the time of the birth of my baby - it was a bit too strenuous for me to stand for long period of time to watch my teacher - I had to stand behind him when he demonstrated his techniques to me.
We barely got to the Mums.

We did do lots of birds - We Deviated!
And I like the birds.

So here are two of my productions in 1959:
        My Chinese painting and my baby daughter.