5:00 am Fri January 27, 2012  The Year of the Dragon   For a
series called Artists in their Own Words, magician Dan Chan and
his wife, balloon artist Kat Chan, discussed magic, Bian Lian or
"Face Changing" (a performance with masks), and dragons.  On
Thursday, in a classroom at the Ford Learning Center at the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kat Chan stood next to a balloon
inflater. With three hours of work into the creation of what
will be a six-foot tall balloon dragon, the dragon's head - in
shades of green, yellow, and white - rested on a nearby table.
"My balloon bag is really my palette," said Kat Chan as she
dipped into her bag to display a variety of colors and sizes of
balloons. "Whatever you do in balloons, it's going to look a
little cartoonish. When I was younger, I drew a lot of comics so
it came in handy because then I could add in those little
features."  Chan, and her husband, Dan Chan, are based in San
Francisco, Ca. She said she learned the art of shaping balloons
into animals and objects from