Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

I've always loved snow since I can remember. After living in California over 11 years. I don't think I can bear the coldness any longer. As deep as I try to hide my emotion, the often this imaginary perfect winter night haunts me. Because of the fairy stories, novels and poems I had read, so there was always a beautiful European style architecture instantly came to my mind, white snowy roofs, peaceful streets, maybe a white night, still could see outside the snow. Every family had a warm cozy house, enjoying a home made delicious dinner together in front of the fire place, with happy music at the background, should be full of joy and love with parents, grandparents all together. We didn't have to grow up or older, just stayed in that perfect night forever... I had been dreaming this painting for a very long time. There might be some missing part in my life, might be a rootless feeling that urged me to create this piece. It was based on a black and white photo taken in 199

Colorful La Boca grew to become an Italian (mostly from Genoa) district of Buenos Aires, Argentina in a very short time in mid-19th-century. It used to be the area where Italian immigrants arrived, and settled in the poorest of conditions. Their houses were built by the leftover corrugated iron and other waste found in the nearby harbour and industry on the Riachuelo river. In order to make the neighbourhood more interesting, they decided to paint their houses in bright colors by using the leftover paint from boats - hence the many different colours that can be seen. Where first a small river flowed, the area that now is Caminito had tracks installed, and when those were not used anymore, this developed into an ugly, abandoned part of La Boca. There were several museums with paintings portraying its hard-working inhabitants in the shipyards and on the docks. Local artist Quinquela Martín painted the walls of the street, which now we know as Caminito (which means little path in Spanish)