Kids' Play

I was asked if I would show a bunch of kids how to paint with a Chinese brush,  as part of a program to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  Their ages would range between 10 to 18, numbering 60.

So this should be a fun activity, for me and for the kids, I mused.  I understand not all kids came to this function out of their free will.  I will submit that the majority of them were just told to participate without the benefit of a discussion, but these are good kids who mind their elders,and follow instructions.  I prayed.

I must therefore recognize the fact that this was not going to be a painting lesson.  This was just going to be a wholesome activity, under the Chinese Brush painting banner.

I resorted to the paint by numbers method, sort of.  The is the worst and best of methods.  Worst in the sense that it fostered a wrong impression of how to paint; best as in it's result oriented.  Anybody can paint as long as they do what Simon says.

I had a easel set up so that each group of 20 kids could watch me.  I had to forgo my usual way of painting, which is on a flat surface lined with wool felt pad.

My plan was to paint one stroke at a time and stop, allowing the kids to emulate me.  I imagine the process would take about 30 minutes to finish the painting.  The painting would be of a monkey, since this is the year of the monkey in our calendar.

The set up resembled a class room; kids would be sitting four abreast, in five tables.  They were provided with a Chinese brush, a paper plate as the ink palette, and construction paper in lieu of the traditional Xuan.
We used construction paper because it is less likely to bleed if the brush is too wet, and of course, it is a lot cheaper.

I discovered that some of the kids did not know how to hold a Chinese brush.  They were handling it like a pen, thus only able to utilize the pointed tip of the brush and not the rest of it.  So we had to make do, after all this was not to be a painting lesson.

The following are some of the works by these novices:

These are actually not bad at all.

The ones below exemplify what happens when we are heavy on the tip and not much else

however these lines captured the essence of the playfulness of the critter.  Therefore I think the language more than made up for the lack of Bi-fa.

Invariably you are always going to find a couple of clowns in a group.  So where does one draw the line? (no pun intended)  Should one stymie their creativity by stopping them in their tracks or better yet, how should one channel their energy?  Where does discipline come in.

I felt like I was being draconian by making the kids put away their cell phones, and in the 30 minute span than I had them, I wasn't going to rock the boat too much.

My Suliao Xuan Ban In Action

I recently exhibited my paintings at a venue where there was a vast expanse of  windows, thus I was able to capitalize on the Sulian Xuan Ban format by exploiting  the back lit lighting.

I must admit, the effect was simply stunning.  I didn't want to gloat but it was so satisfying to see the idea came into fruition.

These works have a totally different nuance when viewed at daytime.   At the reception a visitor asked me if I had entertained the idea of putting a light behind these paintings for the back lit effect.

Honestly I have.  However I dismissed that idea like a hot potato.  Placing a lamp behind these paintings would take away the organic aesthetics of the works, rendering them rather ostentatious, resembling gift shop merchandise.

I guess sometimes we just have to wait for the stars to line up.  It's more meaningful that way.

Asymmetry of Expectations

As I had difficulty deciding on whether to do the Monkey painting in a calligraphic brush stroke style or what I called the doodling line style, I had even greater reservations about how to present my new painting.

I stated that my primary motivation for this painting was to celebrate the Year of the Monkey.  Having said that it would appear that it should naturally don a traditional festive garb.  That usually entails bright, vibrant colors, and the color red is a must.

Yet my sensitive, artistic, and yes, even ornery and conceited side ( wink, smirk) wanted it to be more like a piece of art rather than a seasonal commodity ( whatever the definition of art might be ).

That was how I arrived at retaining the naked poplar wood as my frame.  I loved the wood grain.

I did not want my painting to appear ostentatious.

I can't explain why I could accept the gold glitter and yet I would resist the red color.  In other words, glitter was not loud but red was?

That simply didn't make sense.

The expectations from my cerebral side was confronting my "traditional" side.

I then had an occasion to present my painting to another Chinese brush enthusiast and confided to her about my internal turmoil about wanting to paint an auspicious New Year's piece and yet refusing to put a New Year's dress on.  She pondered for a while and grabbed some red napkins and superimposed them on the frame for me. 

"That looks good too!  Perhaps you can make something red, as in a decoration, to dress it up just for the occasion?"

With that said, my cogs started turning.

I had an ugly mat board that I would never use as a mat, so I decided to put it to good use.

I cut out four lengths and mitered the ends to form corners.

I then taped the corners together with strips of artist tape, in the fashion of securing an incision with butterfly bandage.

Then the outer edges were folded in, to form a shell, a lid.  This reminded me of doing craft in grade school, when we made airplanes and tanks and trains with thick stock paper.  We tried to design the whole thing on a contiguous area, such that upon folding along the edges, a fuselage or a gun turret appeared.  Harking back, that was great training in perceiving things in three dimensions.

I then trial fitted this onto my framed painting

At this point, I was elated; almost ecstatic.

I was like kid, able to repair a X'mas toy after it had broken, and was able to hide that from my parents.

I was like a tailor in Hong Kong, custom fitted a suit for my customer.

I could hardly contain myself.  The contraption worked.

I then proceeded to reinforce the joints in my mat board shell by gluing fabric to the seams.

After a couple coats of red paint, which incidentally had to be cut with ink because it was too bright; my new frame.

Some people might describe this as a red neck way of doing things.  In my neck of the woods, the term red neck has a somewhat negative connotation ( correct me if I'm wrong ).   People are making fun of those of us who use duct tape for every conceivable repair, from mending broken window to keeping a detached car bumper in place.  Things might look less than perfect, but at least they serve the purpose and the repair did not cost a national defense budget.

Perhaps I'm a red neck at heart.  At the very least, I enjoy working with my hands and derive satisfaction in finding new ways of doing things.  I think I was forced to be resourceful when I didn't have much to begin with.  In this case I made a convertible shell for my painting.  The red paper shell serves to alter the ambiance of the piece; at least for the purpose of displaying, and for the purpose of being proper for the occasion.

I am intrigued by my self analysis, and no I did not lay down on a couch!  Had I treated this like any other painting, I wouldn't be having this ambiguity about how to present it.  It would be however I felt and I would let the painting guide me in most cases.  Once I perceived this as something that pertains to my culture's recognition of the Year of the Monkey, then I must tread in the foot steps of tradition.  In a way I felt compelled to dress it the traditional way, because it was expected of me, I being a Chinese.   There were shackles that I couldn't shed.  By employing this convertible red shell I think I might have found the way to gingerly sidestep this trap, in my mind at least.    Perhaps by being two-faced.

In the case of this painting, I was vexed by the asymmetry of expectations.

I have my cohort to thank.  She gave me that light bulb for this project.

Perhaps I could call one version the Id, the other one the Ego.

Now which one is which?

Please find me a couch.

Happy New Year, Year Of The Monkey

YEAR OF THE MONKEY

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Framing My Monkey

With the Monkey painting done, I need to devise a way to showcase it.

I've already decided on using my Suliao Xuan Ban technique, despite the fact that the paper was more like a felt than semi-translucent.  I didn't want the paper to be rectangular.  I wanted a more casual feel.  I wanted a narrow border of gold color for the painting, promoting the regal festivity of celebrating the year of the monkey, in spirit at least.  I would build a wide border frame for it using 4 inch boards.

At first I was going to give my painting a round shape.  But then I  balked at the idea of a round shaped painting in a heavy square frame.  My compromise was to round off the corners of the square painting. 

I didn't want to use scissors to trim my painting in this instance.  I wanted a more organic feel of torn edges.

I wet the line where I wanted the paper to be trimmed with my brush and allow the water to soak in, such that the paper can be torn along that wet trail.

The result was amazing!  It had the feel of hand made paper!

I couldn't find any gold color sheets from the local craft stores, so I made my own.

I picked up some two and one-half inch wide gold glitter ribbon from X'mas fire sale and cut them into lengths.  My idea was to line them up side by side to form a sheet of golden glitter paper.

I used masking tape as an adhesive backing to secure my gold ribbon

here is the finished sheet of gold glitter paper made with ribbons

Then the trimmed painting was laid on top of the glitter paper to tailor for size

My original design was to trim the glitter backing a tad wider than the painting, thus forming a gold border.  I wanted to do that so when I employed the Suliao Xuan Ban mounting method, I would have a clear border around the sandwich, to make the painting appear like a float.

I finally decided against it.  Partly because I was lazy and didn't want to do the extra work, but also this set-up seemed too removed from tradition.  The set-up now involved placing the painting on top of the plastic and the glitter backing behind the plastic.  The thickness of the plastic gave the painting a hint of a float.  I was fighting my own ghosts from yesteryear again.

Instead I scraped off some glitter from the ribbon and sprinkled that on the painting.  That transformation was amazing.  Now the work looked orthodox and hip at the same time!  It just felt right.

I built my frame using poplar.  At first I was going to paint it Chinese Red but it might be too ostentatious for this painting.  I kept it naked and used clear satin urethane as a sealant.

I liked it a lot.

Monkey Business

Okay I've decided to pursue my monkeys in the drawing style, characterised by more lines than brush strokes. 

I did that for a couple of reasons, my inept brushstrokes not withstanding.  I felt more secure in doodling my monkey.  Secure in the sense that I could convey my monkeys more intimately and the process is more fluid.

I also came upon a new kind of paper recently.  This paper had a light brownish color and has visible fibers on the surface.  The paper felt like thin felt (no pun intended) and was intended for calligraphy.
It had excellent absorbency, and revealed richly the  black ink.  I especially liked the visible fibers.  They should blend in amicably with the hundreds of hair that I intended to paint on my monkeys.

Before I put both feet in, I thought I better paint a few samples.  Just to reassure myself, I fretted.

After my practice runs and no disasters were noted, I proceeded to do my monkey business for real.

I basically painted the shape of the head and body with the belly of the brush, with light ink. I did not intend to define them with outline per se, but with hair and shading, hence my notion of a fluid process.

I paid special attention to the direction at which the hair grew.  I thus laid down the main tracks of hair to guide me, such that I wouldn't get lost when I did the repetitious task of painting individual hairs.  It's easy to see the tree but miss the forest!

 

Once I had a few patches of hair the job got easier

As the brush went through different stages of wet and dry, I was able to not only paint the fur, but to perform the Ts'a  and Ren (rubbing and wash)  in a continuous loop, maximizing my brush strokes.

Eventually I had both of them done.

 

 

A little color was then added

My original composition was to paint a huge peach in front of the monkey on the right.  Not just any peach, but the Longevity Peach that is commonly found in Chinese paintings.  The peach, or Longevity Peach is a symbol of good omen and auspiciousness    Chinese often celebrate birthdays not with a birthday cake, but with buns made in the shape of a peach.  But then I said, that's too cliche!

Here is a picture of  the Longevity God clutching a peach in his left hand:

To fill the void space I summoned the help of my seals.  I decided to use the yin seals, where the background is red and the writing is clear.  I wanted the red stamps to add to the composition and to satisfy the need for showing the color red in auspicious matters.  I wanted to keep the painting low key but not subdued.   Thus I needed to place them strategically. 

I stamped my seals on small pieces of paper and moved them around to different locations of the painting to see what would work.

 

 

Framing Suliao Xuan Ban

I  mounted a few of my Ji Mo technique paintings using the Sulia Xuan Ban method that I devised ( see my blog dated September 20, 2015) so it's time to build frames for them.

The reason for employing the Sulia Xuan Ban method is to showcase the translucent Xuan by adopting a float like appearance.  I also want to take advantage of the clear plastic board such that I can display my Ji Mo paintings against a light.  I've done these paintings with that in mind.  I was very cognizant of the light sources in those paintings. 

I was looking for that stained-glass effect with my ink paintings.

I tried to keep things really simple.  I cut a groove with my dado blades in my 1x2 stock to accept the painting/plastic board/backing sandwich.  I tried to dry fit everything for a test run, to make sure my cuts were correct.

 

 

Satisfied that the pieces would fit, I glued them together.  I left one side of the frame open and secured with screws.  This is the door through which  the painting stack would be installed and changed out in the frame.

 

I decided to stain my frames with ink this time around.  This idea came about because my paintings were about Ji Mo ( accumulating ink technique), so why not use ink to the fullest.  Satin urethane was applied  to protect the ink stained frames.

 

There was something very satisfying by staining with ink.  The unpainted poplar stock took in ink like Xuan takes on ink.  I could pretend that I was doing calligraphy and marvelled at the brushstrokes.

 

 

 



 

 

I had some plywood remnants left so I cut them up to fashion some sort of a bracket/stand to prop up my paintings.  Dado blades were used to cut channels to accept the frame.  Ink was again used to stain these stands.

 

 

 

I was pretty elated when I put the finished product in front of a window.  The light that seeped through the plastic board and Xuan really helped to illuminate the light effect I was yearning to impart.

 

 



The clear border around the painting added to the flair when coupled with this back lit environment.
This is a float in the literal sense.