Earthquake

For me, China is no longer that unknown place on the other side of the world. When I hear or read "China" my mind is filled with images. The spice seller at the daily market. The bicycle repair shop in Xi Zhou. Huge steaming pots of rice or dumplings. The women in the Dong village hauling produce from the fields. The children who were mostly fascinated and a little scared of me. The old gentleman who sang a song for us. The wild variety of wacky vehicles on the roads, crammed full of people. The grandmothers carrying their grandchildren on their backs. I think of Tang Lei and Yang Yang, and my old calligrapher friend, Mr. Yang.

Right after I came home, we received a special issue of National Geographic that was devoted to China. As I turned the pages, I realized I was searching the pictures for a familiar face.

The earthquake feels that way, too. Like it has affected people I know. I've seen the way their houses are constructed. I've marveled (and worried a bit) at the way they build their villages precariously perched on the terraced mountainsides. I've traveled where there is only one very steep and winding road to get from one place to the next. I've seen how closely their lives are linked to the land, how vulnerable they are to the vagaries of nature.

I don't know if there was damage to the villages we visited. Some are only 500 miles (Beijing was 1000) from the epicenter so I know they experienced it. But to me it feels like they were hurt. Okay, maybe not them exactly, but... grandmothers carrying their grandchildren, and people bending over their cooking pots, and kind old gentlemen calligraphers. People I might know.

China Paintings

I did about 20 paintings in China, and took thousands of photos from which I can create paintings here at home. I will be working to get pieces ready for our show which opens August 30 at Linden Gallery in Ellison Bay, WI, (please come!) with additional works being exhibited at Barnsite Gallery in Kewaunee, WI. After that, I will continue to work on pieces to submit to an exhibition in China next spring. Lots to do!

It was hard to paint at first. The light, the people, the architecture, the landscape - everything - was different and it took a while for me to get past the "shock of the new" and really start to see things. (Painting is as much about seeing as it is about applying paint. Maybe more). Once I started seeing more accurately, I had to figure out how to express my perceptions with paint.

I worked small - 9" x 12". The light changes very quickly when you're painting on location, so you
can't spend a lot of time on large canvases. (I also kept things small in light of our weight restrictions and the knowledge that I would be hauling these things around a lot...) Some of the paintings are nice works in their own right, while others will serve more as "visual note-taking" that will help me when I'm painting in my studio.

I've been sorting through my photos (a Herculean task) and find that I am drawn to the ones that focus in on individuals. It is the people that impressed me the most, and I think that my paintings are going to be about them. I' m excited to get started!