In April of ’08, I was very fortunate to join a group of artists for 3 weeks in the SW of China.  We hiked into remote villages to paint where some had never seen “whites”.  We drove on switch-back mountain roads, some nearly impassable, to see the magnificent terraced rice and tea fields.  We cautiously sampled the country foods as meals were chopped and prepared before our eyes.

 
   The text reads:  "It is well known that there is a tiger on
the mountain, yet we continue to go there."
    A prominent calligrapher near Dali created this for us--as artists, we swallow our fear--or pride--and challenge ourselves everyday with painting.