a studio of artwork and stories inspired by Azen's Muse
Azensmuse
Does Azensmuse mean ‘A zen’s muse’? Here’s what it’s all about:
My paternal aunt and her husband, bless them, used to call me Ah Zen for my Chinese name Yen.
Like all dialect speakers, Chinese Hakka people often add an endearing “Ah” to a name, like Ah Ben or Ah Joe.
Yen, the name my mother gave me, is in Mandarin the generic name for the swallow. These birds flitting about in spring is a symbol of creative energy rising.
Kudos to my muse that inspires the literature I write (and great authors I read), and the paintings and photo arts I make.
Thus, I am immortalizing the endearment in Ah Zen and the creative energy of my muse with their online presence.
Now you know!
I am a published writer, my list of publications is listed in The Books section of this website (still in progress). I paint in acrylic on canvas and on paper with special interest in figurative expressionism. I love bird photography after learning to shoot all kinds of pictures with handheld digital cameras. I am still honing my photography skill to match the birds at flight. However, the weight of high-end cameras is a boon and a bane to those of us with chronic shoulder aches and a passion to make at least one good bird at flight picture.
This website will be regularly updated to show the newer pictures and art, and any newly published stories.
That aside, I am also journaling on some of the photographs or paintings, as each one has its own life story behind the scenes to tell.
Although the tern belongs to the gull species it is commonly known as ‘sea swallow.’ The sea dwelling tern’s speedy flitting about and its precision sharp diving for its dinner from the water are parallel to the land dwelling swallow’s flitting about and swift darting to catch their insect dinner in the air. This picture was shot in the Gros Mourne National Park in Newfoundland.