Getting Ready

I am finishing up a course on Confucius at the NY China Institute and reading books about mesoamerican art. By having one foot in each culture I can't help but see similarities. I'm at a conference in New Jersey and killed some time in the old Newark library. The stacks had that great old library smell. I found a book of papers written by various authors of mesoamerica. One did address the natural possibility of asian influence in the "new world". He was focused on the zodiac animals, I see the design motifs. Some designs can be universal such as the "swastika" which some feel is just the abbreviated overlap you get from basket weaving. I hope to fill sketchbooks in Mexico of what I see on the walls of the ruins.