1 . John Myatt is an artist. He may not be the greatest artist in the world, but he is possibly the world’s greatest forger (伪造者). He is able to paint pictures in the style of famous artists like Monet and Matisse.

    1     This unusual skill got Myatt into a lot of trouble in the 1990s. For many years he taught art at a secondary school, but then he got divorced (离婚) and he gave up his job to spend more time with his children. In order to make some money he started painting pictures in the style of famous artists and selling them.

    2     He was honest about his work—he wrote his name on the back, and he sold them for ￡150 each. However, one of his customers, John Drewe, started to resell Myatt’s paintings as genuine, original works. Drewe had sold one of Myatt’s paintings for￡25,000. He contacted Myatt and suggested that they go into business together. Myatt agreed. He continued to paint and Drewe sold his paintings to art collectors around the world.     3    

The amazing thing is that Myatt painted his pictures with decorator’s paint.     4     But it soon came to an end. Drewe was divorced too, and his ex-wife found out about the forgeries. She went to the police and they arrested Dewe and Myatt. At their trial Drewe was sent to prison for six years and Myatt for less than one year.

    5     When he came out he started to produce pictures in the style of famous artists again. But he put his name on the back, as he’d done before he met Drewe. Myatt is now famous and instead of charging￡150 for a painting, he can charge￡40-50,000.

2 . Matilda Browne (1869-1947) was a successful artist in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, few people know her name or her art today.

Matilda Browne showed promising artistic talent early in her life. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, she got an introduction to art by watching her neighbor, painter Thomas Moran. Her parents supported their budding young artist.     1    And it paid off. Matilda Browne participated in her first major exhibition when she was just twelve years old.

Browne loved to paint animals, especially cows and other animals.     2     Her bold brushwork gave her paintings a live appearance. Her style is best described as Impressionism.

Matilda Browne quickly became a respected and successful artist. Her list of honours opened doors that would have been otherwise inaccessible for a female artist of her time. As an adult, she moved to Connecticut, where she painted in Old Lyme.     3    She even had the honor of painting a door of their workshop. Some sources say that her good sense of humor helped her fit in with the boys, while others claim that her seriousness is what won them over.     4    

Browne was a successful artist throughout her life. She won numerous awards and exhibited in many important shows. However, very few people know about her today. This is a more common story for female artists than one might think. So, why has Browne faded into being unknown?     5    She was American, while books about American Impressionists tend to focus on the male artists.

3 . It’s common to see a barista create coffee art (咖啡拉花).     1     Han Zheming, a 40-year-old Shanghai resident, has managed to perfect the skill, creating tea art in cups, or dian cha in Chinese, which is a famous ritual (仪式) during the Song Dynasty. “It is similar to the foam on top of a cup of coffee, except that it is made of tea rather than milk.”

    2     After hundreds of years of evolution, it thrived throughout the Song Dynasty, when tea had become a necessity for almost everyone, just like other items as rice, oil and salt. In the eyes of people of that time, good tea should be white and fine.     3    

Han has been fascinated by the culture and art of the Song Dynasty, and has engaged in its artistic practices since childhood. His mother loves traditional culture and he has been leaning toward it under her influence. Han is curious about the patterns created on the tea foam and he often goes to museums to observe Song paintings. “Usually, it takes a year of practice for one to fully grasp tea-whisking.”     4     Now, he can deliver a piece of tea-whisking art in “one take”.

“It’s like adding bells and whistles to tea and giving people a stronger sense of occasion, so drinking tea is more fun,” Han says.     5     “As well as the poems, calligraphy and paintings that were-created back then, I want more people to understand the items used to drink tea, and the culture behind the ways people prepared tea.”

4 .     1     His quotes are on cups. Lego has created a figure in his honor. There’s even a film series featuring a St. Bernard named after him. Even people who may claim not to know anything about classical music would still be able to recognize the “da, da, da dum!” opening figure from Beethoven’s Fifth.

However, it’s not only the quality of Beethoven’s music that makes him so special.

The composer changed the musical world forever. It has been said that he alone dragged music out of the Classical age and into the Romantic. But that doesn’t go far enough.     2    

Before Beethoven, composers worked for the glory of God, or wrote on bended knee for wealthy courts. Beethoven kicked down the doors of the aristocratic (贵族的) world and made himself at home.     3    

Beethoven knew beyond doubt that he was writing for eternity (不朽). His confidence in his abilities was the only great truth in his life and he held on to it.     4     With Beethoven, music became about feelings, about looking within and expressing things unsayable.

In 1805 he changed the course of musical history with his Eroica symphony composition. It was the first truly “heroic” piece of music ever created.

His sense of invention and resourcefulness never declined. His Fifth symphony was described by English novelist E.M. Forster as “the most beautiful noise that has ever penetrated into the car of man.” His music, especially that which was composed during his last ten years, is unique.     5    

And he was deaf.

Study Shakespeare and he will show you what people are. Listen to Beethoven, who wrote simply to show his artistic and intellectual existence, and he will show you what you could be.

5 . According to Michael Gelb, the author of ‘Think Like Da Vinci’, any living person can bring out their inner Da Vinci by committing themselves to several ‘Da Vincian’ principles.

According to Gelb, although not everyone is born with the gifts and the abilities of Leonardo Da Vinci, it is possible for any person to use the fundamentals of Da Vinci’s approach to learning to guide us to toward the realization of our own full potential.     1    

Leonardo possessed an intense curiosity about the world around him. It was this undiscouraged curiosity that began in childhood and continued throughout his life that drove Leonardo into becoming one of the greatest thinker’s humanity.     2     Quite the contrary, Leonardo was a man of action, possessing an unstoppable determination in pursuit of knowledge.

The young Leonardo loved nature. Leonardo would wonder around the Tuscany countryside asking questions he did not himself yet understand. Questions such as: Why shells exist on the tops of mountains alongside seaweed usually found in the sea. Why lightning is visible whereas thunder is not and takes a longer time to travel.     3     His questions took him under the water (he designed a snorkel as well as diving equipment and even a submarine) and into the sky (he also invented flying machines and a parachute).     4     Gelb recommends a series of exercises which include:

Keeping a journal or notebook – Leonardo always carried a notebook with him so that he could jot down ideas, thoughts, impressions and observations as they occurred.

Asking questions - Making a list of a hundred questions in your notebook on any given topic that comes into your head.

Be willing to make lots of mistakes – Leonardo was not afraid to make mistakes and appear foolish.

    5    

6 . “To be a musician, it’s like fulfilling a part of your life that can’t be replaced. It’s something that I enjoy and I love to do and I get a satisfaction from it.”

That is Renald Richard. Born in 1925 in Thibodaux, Louisiana, just west of New Orleans, Richard’s memories of childhood are filled with music. His father played the piano by ear.     1     So at the age of six, Richard started piano lessons at home.

At the age of 13, Renald Richard went to see a band perform at a church dance. It was very amazing and he decided to play the trumpet.     2     Then in Houston, Texas in 1954, Richard was approached by Jeff Brown, the manager of musician Ray Charles. He recalled, “    3     He just got a hit record out and he would be interested in you playing the trumpet in the band. Would you like to do that? Of course. Ray Charles. I said ‘yes’!”

    4     “First of all, to be selected by Ray Charles was an honor to me. I was honored by that and a little nervous.” In time, Richard became Charles’ bandleader. Richard stayed friendly with Ray Charles over the years.     5     Four years later, he moved again, this time to New York City.

Over the years, Richard has written many other songs that have been recorded by artists or bands including Joe Turner, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley, to name but a few.

Renald Richard retired from teaching in 1991.

7 . Cayce Zavaglia is an artist with a unique transformation to her work.    1    Painting with tiny needles is not as fast as painting with a brush.    2    It takes two months-nearly 200 hours to complete a portrait.

    3    Once she decides, she invites that person to her studio and takes hundreds of photographs. She studies the way the light falls across the person's face. After many hours of studying the photos, she chooses the perfect one for her portrait. Next, she enlarges the photo on a canvas(画布). Then, she matches the colors in the photo and the stitching begins.

Cayce starts with the hair and forehead, then moves on to the shoulders and clothing, and finally the face. The human face is what she most enjoys creating in her art.    4    In a portrait of her baby daughter, the skin appears soft and smooth. In a portrait of her dad, the stitches show a wrinkled and aging face.

Cayce believes her success depends on three things: her choice of colors, the length and direction of the stitches, and her ability to make the portrait look true. She loves the surprise when people view her art. From a distance, people believe the portraits are painted.    5    

8 . Hungarian artist Zoltan Viczan has revealed his love and memories of his homeland in a series of new glass artworks at the exhibition, Layers of Hungary, which is taking place at Picnic Gallery in downtown Shanghai from Oct 13 to Nov 15.

Born in Hungary in 1979, Viczan began his studies in glass art at an early age in Budapest.     1    He is known for having developed his own style and techniques for glass engraving(雕刻).

Traditional glassmaking in the West originated in Italy, where the royal court forced master crafts people to live on an island and create fine goods, Viczan says.     2    Then they took the technique to other parts of Europe, such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Viczan came to Asia 10 years ago, spending four years in Japan and two years in Hong Kong before moving to Shanghai in 2016. Generally many expatriates socialized with people from their countries to overcome homesickness.     3    

In the exhibition, visitors will see a map of Hungary sculpted in cast glass and decorated with traditional Hungarian glass patterns, and works describing the city of Budapest and Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe.

    4    For example, he removed the protective and reflective layers of the mirror to create a window on the surface that reveals the layer underneath. He even placed multiple layers of these windows in front of each other, creating a 3D effect that changes when viewed from different angles.

    5     “We live in an infinitely complex world that we have no way to fully understand,” he says. “Through our experiences, we form a worldview that becomes our reality, which will be challenged when we are exposed to new ideas. These layers of realizations are the signs of our personal development.”

9 . It's hard to say goodbye to your favorite pair of jeans, even when they're way beyond wearable.     1    

Netherton-born artist Ian Berry has made quite a name for himself after his unique art took the art world by storm. It's hard to believe the idea of using old denim (牛仔布) as medium for his art came after a call from his mother, Christine, asking him to clean out his room. “It was about six or seven years ago, my mum was clearing out my old room and she wanted me to go through my things. I found loads of old jeans and denims and I noticed the different colors and shades. I kept hold of them but it was only about 18 months later that I began to do something with them.”     2    

Ian Berry quit his full-time job in advertising to focus all his attention on art.     3     And he remembers his girlfriend's parents asking if artists could make a living in this day and age. But his gamble(冒险) paid off and soon his denim artworks were the stars of sell-out shows in Sweden and the US, and his pieces were sold to private and public collections all over the world.

Iain Barratt, director of the Catto Gallery, told the Examiner, “what Ian Berry does is extraordinary.     4     And what absolute treasures they are. Ian makes remarkably detailed portraits and urban landscapes using nothing more than discarded (丢弃的) jeans – the effect is extraordinary.”

    5     Ian Berry uses old jeans, a pair of scissors and some glue to create all his incredible detailed works of art. After 12 years of working with denim, the English artist has managed to fill seven closets with old pairs of jeans, so it's safe to say he has plenty of material for his future works.

10 . With smiling eyes, a quick wit and a good sense of humor, Jia Ling has long been a well-known female comedian.     1    

Jia, 39, starred in and directed the film, Hi, Mom, which by Feb 23^rd has earned more than 4 billion yuan. Jia became the top box office grossing female director in China and is on the path to becoming an international name in the filmmaking industry.     2    

One factor may be her passion for comedy. Jia graduated from Beijing's Central Academy of Drama in 2003. In the last 18 years she has performed crosstalk in various competitions and shows. She has also played comedic roles in many comedies on the big screen,     3     Showing her keen sense of comedy, Jia ensured that Hi, Mom hit home for those who needed a laugh. For example, when Shen Guanglin goes on a date with Li Huanying, Shen suffers from a case of diarrhea （腹泻）,leading to an awkward and humorous scene.

    4     Apart from funny scenes, Hi, Mom focuses on the pure and sincere relationship between mother and daughter. It was regarded as a "heartwanning comedy"   by Hollywood Reporter. China's New Year box office tends to reward titles with broad family fun - and sentimentality （多愁善感）rarely hurts.     5