Zhang Yimou

While I was happy to see Obama as Time's person of the year, I was even happier to see Zhang Yimou as one of the runners up.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/personoftheyear/article/0,31682,1861543_1865103_1865107,00.html

While China has much to improve upon, we in the glass house of the United States have little room for casting stones. As in the efforts of Louis XIV to use the arts to reflect and extol the glory of France, China used the art of Zhang Yimou to assert its arrival as a leading player on the world stage. The theme of peaceful harmony was beautifully presented and was ironically juxtaposed with the image of Bush and Putin exchanging words in the midst of the tensions created by the military actions in Georgia. Yes art is political, but it can also transcend politics and help us on our personal journey to find peaceful harmony. Your challenge - take an image of turmoil, and use it in creating a stronger image that either achieves or guides us toward peaceful harmony.