Panda Bear

Need to find pieces of work suitable for a school bazaar.

This bazaar is a fund raising event for the school.  A percentage of the proceeds goes to support the arts education program of the school; so it is a worthwhile cause.  Almost by definition, these venues do not command a high dollar amount for individual items.  There are certainly no explicit upper limits placed on items for sale, but implicitly the suggested reign is at $150.

I have used practice sketches or salvaged studio pieces in the past, sort of breathing new life into flawed pieces; but I thought I would do something special this year.

 I cannot AFFORD to devote too much time on any individual pieces in light of the relatively low ceiling on price, so I thought I would paint from images that I could find on the web.  I am not eschewing the notion that art, or creativity for that matter, should not be tied to monetary rewards.  I have known too many people taking short cuts, just to make a fast  buck.  There is however the practicality of getting paid for the efforts that one puts in.  As such, I had already been admonished for low-balling.

For myself, I know my works on critters seem to be well received.  So I am going for the soft spot.  I am painting panda bears for this exercise.

First I need to familiarize with the basic features by doing line sketches and brush works.  After a few sheets of that, I move onto the actual painting.

 

 

 

 

I know in my heart that this is not any serious endeavor, so I approach this job with playfulness.  I had intended to use a wet brush so the ink would bleed in create that "furry" look in my practice piece but that did not materialize.  Out comes the Exacto knife and I started to scrape and feather the edges where I wanted that furry look, i.e. under the chin, arm and lower thigh area.  There was not enough of a separation between the rear horizontal branch and the front ones to give the proper perspective, so I scraped a gap where the branches intersect. 





I know, I know.  These techniques don't belong to Chinese brush painting.  Where is my Bi-fa, my Chi,  and my poetic suggestion.  I can hear Asians walking by my booth, whispering, " he's no good.  That's not Chinese"  To them I'll say, "damn right.  Such is the distinction between craft and art" 

I am just having fun rendering and experimenting.  I don't pretend to be something that I'm not.

Fluted Geese in Splint

My Fluted Canada Geese was accepted into the Visual Arts Showcase in the mixed media category.  The piece is about 4 ft wide and is comprised of vertical strips of an image affixed to a piece of 3-ply.
As in my other examples of mounting a large piece of Xuan on 3-ply, the gluing and drying process exerted quite a toll on the otherwise rigid plywood.  This piece is no exception.  The warping is most evident on the 4 corners.  I cannot present the work as such to the audience.

I glued narrow strips of fir around the back parameter of the 3-ply.  The painting itself is sandwiched between a straight, heavier member of stock and the fir strips.  This extemporaneous splint was clamped and allowed to set overnight.  The result was quite amazing.  The piece of 3-ply is now flat as new.

I then used 1x2 poplar stock to make my frame.  I had to mount the painting as a float due to the splints glued to the back of it.  The frame I built is just big enough to enclose the painting, and has a  recessed back plate.  I wanted the recess to hide my mounting hardware, such that the entire frame would hug the wall sans tilt when hung.  The painting is just below the rim of the frame.  I would have preferred a deeper seating, but the recessed backing took the height of the frame rails.

I chose poplar because the wood tone is a good match to the overall tone of my painting.  I had wanted a transparent coating ( like my Canada Geese Impression frame ) but it looked frigid when finished.   I didn't choose to paint it black because that would cage in the wandering feel.  I finally mixed  white latex paint with  weathered oak stain and allow it to sit on the wood for 15 minutes before wiping  off the excess.  The result was blotches of off white that quietly matched the sky.

The finished product was up on the wall for a week and there was something about it that I didn't like but I couldn't put my finger on it.  With the Showcase deadline closing in, I felt like I was behind the 8 ball and have lost my acumen. 

It finally dawned on me.

In cutting out the plywood with a hand held circular, I was cutting a hair wide at the center (perhaps due to the bowing of the piece, since I don't have a large enough flat surface to set the uncut plywood) and the frame enclosure exposed this fly in the ointment.  One could see a uniform narrow gap around the piece, except at the center bottom where it meets the frame. It was like looking at the different body panels on a car and you find out the trunk lid isn't centered because it has uneven gaps on the sides. Fortunately rigorous sanding took care of the annoying protrusion.

 Now the edge is still not perfect, but it is no longer bulging so obtrusively in the middle and definitely has that handmade look to it.  That is how I console myself.


P.S.  Finally received an award at a juried show, for this piece of work!

Paintings of Water, cont'd

I take photographs of water and waves.  I like them.  I'll share some with you.

I started out with painting circular ripples, I am going to try to paint the linear ones.  In a way, my desire to do this was sparked by visiting an exhibition of Ellsworth Kelly's prints.  I have vivid memories of how those prints of rivers resembled my photos.  Coincidentally, as I glanced at my pile of old vinyls spewed on the floor, I noticed the LP cover of Linda Ronstadt (Different Drum) and it has a water theme.  Nice!

Going linear has not subjugated my errant brush.  Chinese has a saying about holding the brush, that of fingers of  keen grasp (for control ) and a light wrist for expression and movement.  My wrist is still laden with indecisiveness.  Ever try to learn piano or guitar or violin?  There is a disconnect between the hand and the mind resulting in digital arrhythmia and rigor mortis of the fingers.  Definitely not Xieyi!!

 

Obviously I am not thrilled by my etudes, but to add insult to injury, the quipping I received was that " these are not Chinese paintings ".  So what defines or qualifies as a Chinese painting.  What are some of the attributes?  Bi-Fa?  Scattered point perspective?  Treatment of void spaces?  Lack of light values?  Minimalistic?  Poetic?  The 3 Perfections?   Should Chinese paintings be forever entombed in the classics?   Should I feel insulted?  Is it important for my works to be accepted as Chinese paintings?

I myself am getting confused. 

I am not in a position to offer any insights, but I will attach some pictures of water works I took of a famous master painter Ma Yuan from the Song Dynasty ( about 800 years ago ).  

 

 

 

Paintings of Water

I vaguely remembered that my astronomical numbers says my "FATE" is "Wood" based and therefore should refrain from too much "Water", as flood destroys and sweeps away timber.  I believe it is this hazy memory that causes me to be afraid of water, to the point of pinching my nose when showering or else eliciting the reflex of hyperventilating.  Having gills would be numero uno on my dream list.

Yet water mesmerizes me.  The deep abyss with all its might, yet glistens and ripples and glistens.

I love to paint water, trying to capture that fleeting moment of movement, of that sparkle.   Water is a common theme in my paintings.  In fact the way I beguile myself into this hobby was by painting a family of Canada geese swimming by the backyard.  Unfortunately I am often rewarded with frustration but lately I've been exploring this subject matter again.

 this was done in charcoal

Circular ripples are fascinating.  Everybody knows them, but trying to portray them as not cook top heating elements is a different story.

 ink on Xuan                

The difficulty is, in my view, rooted in our innate desire to form and trace the outlines of circles, and ignore ( or unable to ) translate the motion of the ripple.  We should be painting  the energy of the outwardly radiating concentric circles, and not the circles themselves.   I am not happy at all with my attempts, too static!  Forgive me for being a sexist, but this is akin to a nice girl... proper and nice in every way, but ah so bland.  We need to have ripples once in a while.

Note to self:  keep painting these circles until you are sick of them then you'll be released by your bias as to what they SHOULD or NEED to look like.   After these shackles are off, then try again.

Canada Geese Makeover

I used the painting from my blog "Don't Throw The Baby Out With The Water" as a project.  I darkened the neck areas of the sleeping geese and selectively applied titanium white to some of the white patches to increase the contrast; cropped it to fit a 12x12 canvas and I now have a painting that looked quite different from the original copy.  This one is actually presentable, I mused.  I shall call this one "Canada Geese, Impression".

  after correction

*also note the vertical stripes of sieve markings

   before corrections

I entered this piece in a local juried Visual Arts Showcase event, for no other reason than to see if this type of work will be accepted by the "mainstream".  I've often lamented that I don't know which pigeon hole to shackle myself in.  I therefore entered the painting in the mixed media category.  It is Chinese Brush Ink painting on  Xuan, but mounted on canvas and sealed with Golden Gel Medium.
I entered a total of 4 paintings ( the maximum allowed ) and only two were invited into the Showcase.

  not invited

  not invited

Now that the painting was accepted, I needed to package it a little better for the show.  I thought the 12x12 canvas alone was too austere.

I wanted to build a frame for it.  The local home improvement store has the 1 x 3 poplar stock, which is perfect.  The poplar even has the same color as my painting, so I decided to leave the frame nude with clear urethane coatings.  I wanted to leave a wider moat between the canvas and the frame.  I noticed the strong presence of the vertical stripes of sieve markings* on the Xuan paper, so I decided to make the moat backing along the same vein.  I harvested the dried water iris leaves, which the Canada geese would have frolicked amongst in the summer time and glued them onto the back board.

I didn't like the color of the dried leaves; I thought they were too red and ostentatious.  Toning them down with my own concocted color worked much better.  I was able to retain the lines without robbing them of character.

 

the outside edges of the frame is rounded off a little to soften the lines, making the frame more compatible with the dreamy state of the subject matter

When I presented the finished product to my peers, some of them thought it was gimmicky.  I beg to differ.  I thought I was being faithful to Chinese Brush, exploiting the relationship between ink, brush and paper  and was elated to be able to garnish the work with elements from the natural environment of my geese.  I do particularly like how the theme of vertical line is carried out, albeit in a subtle way.  To the nay sayers, I am just taking Chinese Brush to a more contemporary stage.

  finishd product

Geese Paintings...Flight Preparation

I was asked by a local sushi restaurant to adorn their walls with my paintings.  A feather in my hat, why not!

After casing out the set-up of the restaurant, which walls are painted with some intense colors, I decided that my Canada Geese paintings would stand out nicely against a solid red background.

Canada Geese I

                                                                      Canada Geese II

I did not want to encase my geese paintings in this instance.  I thought putting in a frame would limit the visual presentation of freedom.  Besides, my " Canada Geese I " painting had the top goose too close to the upper margin and feeling a little claustrophobic,  therefore framing this painting would further exacerbate this shortcoming.  http://www.facebook.com/tien.c.lohI therefore mounted these 2 paintings on 3-ply plywood.  The plywood seemed stiff enough to handle the job, but after the mounting had dried, it showed a little warping.  I therefore glued spline pieces along the backside edges of the plywood to stiffen and flatten it.  It worked like a charm.

I wanted to display the 2 geese works as a pair.  I visualized some degrees of interaction between the 2 pieces, i.e. the relative placement of the 2 pieces to tell a cohesive story.  I came to the concept of displaying them as floats, each with a different ride height, such that the pieces could be overlapped.  The larger piece would be riding higher the the smaller one, allowing a spatial perception of the smaller piece being farther away.  This was accomplished by building collars of different heights and attaching them to the back of the plywood.

Here's how the display looked  in the sushi restaurant.

Racial Discrimination Disquised As Editorial Policy

I have bemoaned at the consequences of rote learning with regards to Chinese brush painting, not expecting to find racial discrimination can also be a victim of  habitual procedure,  even in today's society.

Recently a bunch of us were involved with an exhibition, under the banner of Wang Gongyi and her students.    A press release was sent out to a local newspaper.  This particular agency caters to Asian interests but is published in English, since Asian is such a diverse group.

There were 18 of us in the exhibition. 12 of us are Chinese and 6 are Caucasians.  The following is a copy of what appeared in the paper (defaced to protect privacy)

What was apparent was that none of the Caucasian names were published.  The press release was somehow whittled down to 12 Asian names.  The bleeding heart would cut the editor some slack, "perhaps of space constraints!"  How about just publishing the last names so everybody is included?
To deliberately filter out the Caucasians and label them as " and others" is unconscionable.   I could not find any plausible reason why this editor would commit such acts, other than to adhere to his/her agenda, regardless of how insidious or otherwise innocent it might seem.  I might even go as far to say that the intent was not malicious, but somehow the attitude was inextricably ingrained.

I drafted a letter to the editor of the publication, but was never delivered because it was deemed to be too "in your face" by some members of the group ( is this Asian humility? Sigh )
"As participants of an arts exhibition, we all look to your August 6^th edition with eager anticipation, to catch a glimpse of our names being mentioned as cohorts in this event.

Imagine the disappointment we felt after witnessing your excerpt about us on page 12 under the Arts Culture & Entertainment heading, where only some of us were mentioned, and the omissions appear to follow a racial divide.

The students of Wang Gongyi are comprised of people from all walks of life and ethnicities. In her words, “ I was an office worker, He was a teacher, She was a physician,….. Now, We are bound by our passion for calligraphy and painting”. We had supplied you with the names of all participants for the press release and somehow all the names of non-Asians were conveniently omitted and replaced by the words “and others”. Such editing can be construed as deliberate and nefarious exclusion of non-Asians.

Obviously such malfeasance does not belong to your organization and we are hoping for an explanation from you to put our vetting and concerns to rest. Thank you for your attention in this matter."

I need to vent my anguish by documenting some of the works by these omitted fellow artists. Yes they are Caucasians interested in Asian arts.

P.S.   The reply from the newspaper when asked about the omission (with a less accusatory tone) :

"Thanks for your e-mail and questions. Firstly, yes, the list of artists was prohibitively long to include them all. Secondly, because we are The Asian XXxxxter, the focus of our calendar listings is on artists, etc. of Asian ethnicity. This is a standard applied to all requests for submission that we receive.  

Have a good afternoon."

Well, Mr. Editor, based on your bias, General Robert Lee of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War might be considered Asian !     Furthermore, which of the following last names would you deem to be non Asian: Chan, Lee, Wong, de Castro, Rivera, Aquino,Gupta, Haryana, Bose, Dutta, Mistry, Navarro ?  Are you qualified to identify ethnicity based on a person's last name?

Shame on you Mr. Editor.

 porte