Hi,Dear Friends



March 8, 2025 was a special day -- it was the third time I had gone to the Ava Artist Guild to share some Chinese art with local American artists at their art gallery.

At about 11:00 a.m., Mrs. Caryl Posada-Stillings, the president of the Ava Artist Guild, came to my house in Springfield to pick me up in person. On the way, we had a very relaxed, delightful and friendly conversation. Besides telling me some news about their artist guild, such as there being more art galleries in their city now, she also told me something about her family members, such as her husband’s and her daughters’ careers and lives. The best news was that she had become a grandma.

Then, after eating a wonderful lunch with the members at their art gallery, she announced something about their art gallery. Then, Mrs. Caryl Stillings gave the following time to me.

Since it was my third time being there, instead of repeating what I had already talked about, I paid more attention to introducing something new. Then we practiced painting a Chinese Xieyi painting: Pine Trees and Peonies — symbolizing that friendship is just like the beautiful flowers and wishing our friendship is just like the pine, forever enduring. More than 20 artists participated in the painting activity, and 13 of them completed their artworks.




Then, after a discussion, we enjoyed a Chinese buffet. One of the board members of the Ava Artist Guild, Mrs. Wanda Nove, drove me back to Springfield at around 8:00 pm.
Once more, in Ava, I saw local Americans' enthusiasm and interest in Chinese arts and culture; once more, I saw the function of art as a bridge of friendship.

Can you imagine? Besides Mrs. Carly and Mrs. Wanda, who each drove for about 2 hours (one-way) to pick me up and drop me off respectively, a beautiful lady who had carried her two children came to our last event in their art gallery before the epidemic in 2019, and she brought me a soup that was made by her family as a gift. She said that their children quite enjoyed the event we had worked on together and the plum blossoms they learned to paint in the event have been hanging on the wall at their house; Ms. Tina, an artist over 80 years old, participated in our art events in 2015, 2019 came in again; especially, I am impressed with many questions about my two culture maps of American State Birds and Chinese Province Birds painted on two pieces of thin silk …



Then I received the best reward after this event: the board of the Ava Art Guild permitted us to update our current event to be a regular one, held once annually or biennially, depending on my time arrangement.

Hence, on March 11, 2025, Mrs. Caryl Posada-Stillings and I signed a Cooperation Intention Letter.

To be honest, I should have written and sent this letter to you earlier. However, as soon as I returned to Springfield, I was involved in the final lessons of my other three “Cross-culture and Comprehensive Art” workshops and then I had to deal with many things before my international travels from the US to China and then from China to Australia. So, I am just now able to sit down and work in a quiet and peaceful state of mind and write afterward to reminisce.



How about you? Do you have anything special on your side?

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Sincerely, I am just a lifelong learner in the arts of painting, music, English, management and Chinese art teaching, and work on the website in my free time. I would really like to do something with what I have learned and make this website a little electronic bridge for cross-cultural and integrated/comprehensive art and Chinese language studying. This way, I can help others while improving myself.

Thank you always for your understanding, guidance and assistance and if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to write to info@ebridge.cn .

Shirley Yiping Zhang
May 11, 2025