Chinese Confession - What If?

What if…? We probably all ask ourselves these questions on a pretty regular basis. As I often do, I allowed myself to get lost in thought today as I thought about some of these classic “what if” questions. For some people, these two words are almost completely retrospective. It’s as if they open up feelings of pain, regret, remorse, or despair. “What if I had only done this?” or “What if I had done that instead?” are classic examples.

Perhaps it is just naïve of me, but I actually don’t find myself pondering these kinds of questions. I don’t have any major regrets, and I am pretty happy with how life is going for me. I am happy with what I have done, what I am doing, and what the future may have in store. As a result, my “what if” questions tend to reflect more of an optimistic outlook. They also are a good source of laughter every once in a while as I contemplate those random things that can happen in life.

One of my “what if” questions came into my mind as I was watching a boat travel up and down the Huangpu river that runs through the heart of Shanghai. This is by no means an ordinary boat. It’s literally a giant television. I am not joking. This boat just goes up and down the river all day and night showing video clips and advertisements on the largest television screen I have ever seen in my life. It’s rather far away, but I would say it’s easily over 30 feet wide. It’s huge. I snapped a picture of it, of course, and I decided to use my Photoshop skills to see what it would look like to have one of my paintings on display in the most public and conspicuous place in the entire city. I picked my piece “Tropical Storm” as a tribute to the typhoon that gave Shanghai the cold shoulder recently.

And so, with no further ado, I present to you “Tropical Storm in Shanghai”: