Sculpture Project: "Mom, it hurts!"

After more than two months' work, my sculpture, "Mom, it hurts!", is almost done!

This sculpture was originally called Cry,  but I decided to change its name a few days ago when I read an article about the shocking earthquake in Sichuan, China, three years ago. May, 12th, 2008, Huanhuan Kindergarden collapsed completely in the 8.0 degree earthquake in Sichuan province; the disaster happened during the nap time and almost all the children were buried under the ruins. When the rescuing committee arrived, they heard a child crying, "Mom, it hurts!......" However, when they finally removed the   heavy steel bar on top of this little boy, he had stopped breathing.

Looking back on the original white clay head before it got fired, I am quite surprised to see how it has turned out. My goal was to make the baby head look as realistic as possible; in addition to the skin color,  I also put on a thin coat of a shiny metal color which made the skin look even better. Thank you, Gary, for showing me such an amazing color and a useful technique! :D

As the sculptor, I find it very hard for me to evaluate my own piece because I work on it everyday and see it develop gradually. There is nothing strikes me or surprise me when I see the final project because I have been staring at it for months. However, others do have interesting reactions. For example, one of my classmate told me after seeing my sculpture, "It's sick, and I love it!"

As soon as I began to make my first human head sculpture a year ago I realized that my sculptures would make a lot of people feel "sick", "uncomfortable". It's just the nature of human head sculptures. I always have this question in my head, "Is it OK to make people feel 'sick' about my sculpture?" My intention is to make something beautiful, not to scare people off.

Last week I visited the Cranbrook Art Museum and a pair of sculptures with the theme of Comfort caught my attention; especially the one with a woman licking and spiting green jelly seductively. Both sculptures are "sick" and provoke a strong sense of discomfort; yet I was unable to erase the images from my mind long after I saw them.

Discomfort lasts. Thinking back on my natural disaster memorial sculpture, Cry, I do not hesitate anymore; I decide to make it as sick and scary as possible in order to provide the discomfort which will make people think about the balance between human and the environment.

My next step will be creating a scene of ruins and put all the elements together: the baby face, the hand, the new shoot, the rocks, the grass, and the ruins. Now I have finished all the college applications and my plan is to finish the sculpture in 10 days after I go back to school.

New Pictures During Thanksgiving Break

    I'm enjoying my Thanksgiving Break in my friend's house and I finally find some time to draw.

    I began to teach my friend's younger sister sketching and fashion design a month ago. This is my first time being a teacher and I really start to feel the responsibility of being a teacher: to give the best I can give. There is a huge difference between Chinese and American education: in China, the student is forced to learn whether he or she likes or not; in America, it is all about "interest", and you can never force a student to learn.

    I have to confess that sketching is extremely "boring" for most people: staring at a cube for three hours and trying to distinguish and fix the tiny mistakes in the 3D structure of the drawing. Inherently interested in drawing, I found no problem drawing ten hours a day when I was in a drawing camp in 6th Grade. However, everyone is different. As a teacher, I start to consider how to make my student interest in sketching.

   I've been teaching Hanna (my lovely student~~:D) basic 3D shapes, dress sketching, and knowledge about human body proportion. Hanna is making considerable progress; she is genuinely interested in dress sketching and fashion design. Also, as my mom and Dr. Dostert suggested me, an important aspect of being a teacher is to model what it is to be an artist and show Hanna how to apply art into our daily life.

    So, I did some intense drawing these days for my own interest and also to show Hanna how "complete" a drawing can be (comparing to rough sketching). Both pictures are based on photos I found online. I used ball pen for the goldfish and color pencil for the girl picture.

Video of My Sculpture: Behind the Mask

 Gary and I made this video for the sculpture: Behind the Mask. Our idea was to make a one-minute-long video for the sculpture which is on display in the Kingswood hallway. We will create a QR code (a certain kind of barcode) for the sculpture, and people can scan this code using their Smartphones and actually watch this video on their Smartphones while they are examining the sculpture.      

It was a cool experiment, and we had a lot of fun making the video. A big Thank You to Gary for making this wonderful video and Joe for helping me firing the sculpture. 

Hope you enjoy it!

Sketches for Fun

Here are some sketches that I use to decorate the wall in my room. They are random sketches from the past. I keep the habit of signing my name and the date on every drawing so you can actually see when I made them.

JUST A FUN FACT: the cursive signature on my sketches is my Chinese name: 江帆. I designed this signature in 6th grade because I believed I would sell my drawings for millions of dollars one day! Just kidding... However, after I finished my lectures about "the Dream and the Future" in Chinese middle schools, some students came to me and asked me for my "autograph"; that was the first time my signature was actually put to use. I felt so honored...

The sketch for the metal skull of my sculpture: Behind the Mask. I used it to study the 3D structure of the skull.

 The reason I started learning sketching was that I was so interested in Japanese Manga that I wanted to become a cartoonist when I grow up (of course my dream has changed now!).

A cartoon version of Michael Jackson.

This sketch is for the snow sculpture I did last winter. I have the tradition to make one snow sculpture every winter. If I have any chance to create another one, I will probably make a Steve Jobs or Marilyn Monroe!

Another unfinished sketch of Michael Jackson. This quick sketch took me about 10-15 minutes; I just laid out the basic structure and shadows.

Unlike drawing intensely and consuming hours on one single drawing, quick sketches help you catch the movement and the 3D structure of an object. My old drawing teacher used to make me do one quick sketch every day because "practice makes perfect"!

I hope you enjoy these sketches!

Sculpture Project: Cry

I'm in Sculpture Studio this year and my new sculpture project is called "Cry", which was inspired by one of my unfinished sculpture.

For this one, my idea is to create a movie setting and the theme is about the natural disasters. The crying baby's face emerges from one end of a board, and there will be a little hand stretches out in the middle trying to grab a new shoot, which symbolize the hope, on the other end of the board; the whole surface of the board will be covered with soil, grass and building remains just like the earth surface after an earthquake.

How did I come up with this idea? Different artists have different approaches to their art; I use pictures as inspiration and combine various features on several pictures to make the final design. It is sort of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; you search for clues in individual pieces and form the whole picture in your head. For Cry, I first thought I was going to take the previous sculpture (a wax crying baby head) on to another level. I went on google and found pictures of crying baby, baby's hands, a new shoot, and earthquake surface. Once I got the pictures, I thought about ways to combine these elements in order to make the scene as dramatic as possible. The advantage of sculpture is that, you materialize a idea into something which can be observed and touched, and maximize its dramatic features in order to give a direct, strong impression. This is the power of image that word can not convey.

The most exciting part of the sculpture is the tortured baby face because this is my first time making face with such strong facial expression using clay. To my surprise, the face was not that hard to make and I felt how the muscle structure moved under the baby's skin once I touched the clay.

This is my third clay head, and I begin to feel a strong connection with this material. The clay becomes part of me as my fingers slide on this cool and smooth object.

Sculpture room has become a place for me to temporarily escape the craziness of Senior year and spend time to meditate in solitude. The clay has the power to calm me down.

Streams of Thoughts 4: Conformity and Limited Uniqueness

This article does not relate to art. However, there are some thoughts that I would like to share with you about the events happening around us. Thank you for spending your time reading this and I would love to hear your opinion too!

 The issue of Michael Jackson rose again after I almost get over with him. MJ’s doctor Conrad Murray is on trial these days and the whole process is showed on TV. I was shocked by the unexpected information that released during the first day of the trial, such as the picture of MJ’s dead body and a tape record of MJ’s mumbling after taking excessive drugs in May, 2009. As for why such a giant star would end his life like this, my mom’s answer caught my attention: he did not get enough education. In my philosophy class with Dr. Lorey, we discussed, why do we come to Cranbrook? What is education all about? In that class I thought very practically that education is for a good job, but now I think I have a better answer.

The most important function of education is to teach us the rules in the human society and to guide us to fit in the society. To put it simple, education is like a magic chip-making machine, for whatever you put in there, it produces chips which may have different shape, size, flavor; education allows limited uniqueness while shaping everybody into a certain kind of product--- a chip-making machine produces different kinds of chips, but it never produces chocolate. At school, we learn not only knowledge, but also the “rules” in dealing with others, which make us “normal”. MJ, who went to school for only several years, completely lost his focus after the 2005 court case because he lacked basic social skills; on contrast, Bill Gates, who at least finished high school and got into Harvard, started a new life in charity work after he stepped down as the chief executive officer of Microsoft. MJ’s miserable ending was caused by his lack of education and the knowledge of “social rules”. We extol uniqueness, while isolate those who are “too unique”, like MJ; however, it is the lack of uniqueness which makes us extol uniqueness; in reality the socially acceptable uniqueness is extremely limited and the function of education is to teach us the limits.

It’s hard to say if conformity is a bad thing. We have to admit that humans are social animals. This may sound passive, but it is the way the society works. My computer is broken and I have to get a new computer this weekend. My parents insisted that I should get a Mac. Except the practical advantages of Mac, they want me to get a Mac so that I look not so oddly old-fashioned. Personally, I have no interest in technology and I’m still using the MP3 I got in 4^th grade. “You’d better get a Mac if half of your classmates are using Iphones and Ipads.” My parents reasoned (I just noticed that I can’t even spell ‘iPhone’ correctly ;D). Thus, I had another lesson on “how to be normal”, and I think my parents are quite right. This is the rule and you’d better accept it and MASTER it.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, is a master in using the sense of conformity. I love his words, “people don’t know what they need, Apple tells them what they need.” Instead of following the public taste, Apple creates fashion and takes advantage in people’s sense of conformity. This also reminds me of MJ’s words, “I do whatever fashion forbids me.” He made teenagers wear the white socks and red jackets because “everyone else is wearing them”. Those who know how to take advantage of conformity succeed in the human society.

Fan Jiang's Art Work Collection

I could not post anything on my blog during summer because it is banned in China. However, I did have some new creations and I put together an art work collection for my recent art works.

A big Thank You to Gary for writing such a wonderful foreword! I'm looking forward to work with you this year and I've been brainstorming new ideas of sculptures for the whole summer.

This booklet is a milestone in my art journey. What I have created is the past, and I'm looking forward to challenging myself with new techniques, materials, and concepts.

Sculpture: Behind the Mask

I made it. We made it! With the help from my Sculpture teacher, Gary, and Ceramics teacher, Joe, I finally finished my sculpture of this semester: Behind the Mask.

I started this piece after Spring Break and worked very hard on it. I was inspired by a Japanese poem and decided to embody the idea of rapid industrialization and Asian tradition into the same piece. After studying abroad, I really come to understand that although China is growing fast economically, it is essential for Chinese people to preserve our tradition so that the materialism is able to sustain itself based on social morality and unity.

This is how I started the sculpture with newspaper and white paper clay.

Two weeks after. I worked extra hours after school and it is very exciting to see the development every day. The Metal Skull was very challenging because of all those details. At first I did not even know where to start and I started with the basic 3D structure of the eye, cheek bone, and mouth. I just let the sculpture develop itself and this is where it leads me to.

After it is completely dry, Joe helped me with the glaze and we fired the head twice. This is before the second firing and the green paint is palladium. I had to take a break and breathe some fresh air frequently because palladium is a dangerous chemical.

After second firing. The Metal Skull came out beautifully.

Can you believe it? This is merely CLAY and GLAZE!

It took me about one hour to paint the other side of the head, the Beijing Opera Mask, which represents the Chinese culture.

I had a bob style wig and I trimmed it into an Beijing Opera hairstyle. Also notice the blue eye on the Metal Skull. :D

This is the final look! Gary and I worked together to put the half crown on the head and it was the final tricky part of this sculpture. The Opera side and the Metal Skull create interesting contrast and I hope that it makes people to think what is really "behind the mask".

It was a great adventure making this sculpture. It took me to a completely new realm in Sculpture with the carving skills on clay, firing technology, and being extremely patient and persistent. A big Thank You to Gary, Joe and Ms. Mosley! Without your help this wonderful sculpture cannot be done.

I have learned so much this year in Sculpture and I cannot wait to explore more next year!

Margaret Avery Augur Scholar

This award was both surprising and predictable. In the Award Assembly last week, I received this award from Gary, my Sculpture teacher. I felt very happy because I devoted so much time in Sculpture this year and all my work finally paid off; on the other hand, I was very surprised because so many people saw my work and appreciated it.

Here is a little history of this award: This award is in honor of Miss Augur, Headmistress Emeritus of The School, and was selected by the faculty and administration. Miss Augur evinced a keen and abiding interest in and maintained a fine rapport with girls of many types. However, she particularly admired certain qualities: namely, integrity and seriousness of purpose. She was especially sensitive and knowledgeable in her appreciation of the art work done by the students. Therefore, it seems highly appropriate that the Margaret Avery Augur Scholarship go to a girl who is capable of sound academic achievement, who is talented in art, and who exemplifieds the character traits which Miss Augur so admired.

I'm very honored to receive this award and I believe it encourages me to develop my passion further in Sculpture. I always feel a kind of ecstasy when I touch the materials and devote myself fully into making sculptures. Every sculpture I made was a great adventure and I continue to challenge myself with new techniques and various materials.

I'm still a beginner in Sculpture, and I'm always ready for the next challenge!

Streams of Thoughts 3: My Plan For the Future

"Why don't you just become an artist?" My friend's uncle asked me this question during Christmas break and I did not know how to answer at that time.

Why don't I just become an artist? A lot of people say that I've got some talent in art. However, at the same time, I also love history, sociology and math. I have always kept art as my hobby and the thing that I enjoy to do in my free time, but I have never thought about making it my career.

A lot of this has to do with my cultural background. As a developing country whose GDP increasing rate has caught the attention from all over the world, China focuses mainly on developing and securing its economic status in the world. I was often discouraged to put to much time on art when I was in China even though my parents are very liberal comparing to other Chinese parents. Typical Chinese parents will yell at you if they see you drawing random pictures on your text book; my parents let me enjoy art as much as I want in my free time as long as I finish all my schoolwork.

Things started to change after I came to America. The majority of American society are middle class and they have secured their economic status for decades. As my friend's uncle said, "Americans think, if you have talent, go for it!" After two years of cultural adaptation, I'm very much influenced by the American way of thinking, but at the same time, I spend a long of time pondering and balancing my love for sociology, economics, and art.

When I was five, I wanted to be an ice-cream store owner so that I can eat ice-cream all day; when I was about ten, my dream is to become a cartoonist or fashion designer; now, after days of meditation, I have set my plan for the future to enter the business world then go back to art.

I believe that great art should have something to do with the society. Art is the direct expression of human divinity and therefore should take the responsibility to influence the society in a positive way, to lift people's spirit. I also think that in order to create art, you need to understand the society, and deep understanding of the society comes from rich experiences. This is why I want to enter the business world first after I graduate from college. I want to explore the world first and get personal experiences in the things that I always love, such as math, history and sociology. To me, the curves of the GDP line is so mysterious, fascinating, and somewhat artistic. Art has beats and rhythm; the changes of society has the beats and rhythm, too. There is a Chinese saying, "you cannot shut the door and make a cart", which means you cannot carry out your ideas irrespective of the external circumstances. Great art comes from social experiences, not from locking oneself in a studio and working with materials. I want to experience the world as much as I can and embody my understanding of the world in to my art to have a positive impact on other people.

Although I'm not going to set "artist" has my future career right now, I will continue to use art as a means to express my ideals and I'm doing it now. I love to participate in community art projects such as the Wire Car project in Detroit and the Clark Park Bench Design project because they bring people's pride of their city; I embodied my deep grief for the lives lost in the natural disasters in the wax baby head with terrifying earthquake surface on the top; I expressed my concern about the media brainwashing in the "media head" sculpture; right now I'm working on a head sculpture called "Behind the Mask" to show the contrast between the Chinese tradition and the rapid industrialization in China.

I will never stop creating, and I think now I have got an answer for the question, " why don't you just become an artist".

Panda Brochure for the Girls Dorm

Wutong, a Chinese Senior girl in Cranbrook, and I made the Panda Brochure for the girls dorm last summer. The initial idea came from Wutong. She used this idea to answer one question on the application of Internatioanl Mentor, "what new idea do you have for the dorm?" When she applied, she did not want to waste such a good idea and asked me, "Fan, I know you are good at drawing, would you like to do a cartoon brochure with me?"

Our object was to make a brochure that is useful for the dorm and fun to read at the same time. And we decided to make a highly illustrated brochure with a cartoon panda as the main character. In order to brainstorm ideas, we walked around the girls dorm, went over the student handbook, and recorded every possible thing that we could include in the brochure. The topics in the brochure include: Dress Code, Fun Dorm Activities, Sign In and Sign Out, a special section for international students, and many other more.

We divided the task and drew all the pictures during the summer break. Since we live very far away in China (it's like from Michigan to California), we shared pictures and thoughts online and printed the picture after we came back to America.

I still remember the day when new students came, Wutong and I visited every new students and gave them our Panda Brochure. People love it! Many old boarders wanted one too because it was so cute and fun to read. We reprinted it 3 times and put one copy in the dorm office.

My happiest memory is always that I'm able to use my own talent to help people, to make them feel warm. Wutong and I hope to make the Panda Brochure into a girls dorm tradition. Wutong is graduating this year, and I will graduate next year, but we want more new boarders to enjoy and benefit from the brochure. A big Thank You to Wutong for the wonderful idea. She has a natural sense of humor and she drew her part with great patience. 

Sculpture Project: The Media Head

This head sculpture is my sculpture project from last semester. Having already made two snow sculptures ( the Sphinx and Michael Jackson), I made this one out of clay and newspaper.

The theme of this Media Head is the media invasion of human's mind. Nowadays, the media playes a bigger and bigger role in people's daily life; the media is often related to the materialism and mind control. The pale face without any facial expression represents the lack of free thinking; the explosion on one side of the head and the newspaper that comes out represent the invasion of media in people's mind. This head is a sexless figure because the mind control applies to everyone in our society.

My understanding of art is that art must address to a certain problem in the society and bring people's awareness of that problem. Our last summer reading was a book called Feed. It is a story about a group of teenagers controlled by the Feed, which is a remote mind control chip that is installed in their brains. This story touched me and I decided to embody the theme of media control into my sculpture.

Although I have made two snow sculpture of human figure before, this is my first time truly examing the 3D structure of a human head. It was very challenging carving the eyes, lips and ears. I was glad that the head turned out OK. Now I'm working on another head sculpture called Behind the Mask, and I feel a lot better because now I can feel how the facial muscles move instead of merely carving out the basic elements of a head.

An anecdote about this head: when we displayed this Media Head in the hallway, one of the student's Mom wanted to buy it. The deal was not made at last, but I think the most important thing is not that I can sell my sculpture to earn money, but my experience of making sculptures and consistently challenging myself!

Streams of Thoughts 2: Grass Root Art and Human Divinity

Right now I'm working on a bench design project in the Clark Park, Detroit, and our group took a tour to the Clark Park last weekend. On our way back, the teacher stopped by three benches that he has done before to show us as examples. The three beautiful banches are made of mosaic and they represent the race diversity and the natural resources in Detroit. The things that caught my attention were not the benches shining in the sunlight, but those two people with "shabby" clothes sitting on the benches. Behind the benches was a huge, brand-new-looking painting of Detroit skyline on one side of a building, and the teacher told us that the painting was done by a group of students 25 years ago and has never been attacked by anyone since then. I turned around and looked at the neighborhood. To be honest, it was a very depressing scene to look at. All these old houses and streets showed the prosperity of Detroit decades ago.

However, I truly admire those nieghbors who have been respecting and protecting the painting for 25 years; and I was deeply inspired. Last Spring Break, I watched a lot of videos about the human origin and how human beings have gradually lost their divinity because of the erosion of the materialis. Ralph Waldo Emerson also believed that human beings have this instictive divinity and direct connection with God. In order to awake humans' inner divinity, the video suggests, we have to raise the "collective consciousness", which means a moral attitude shared by everyone in a society, to a higher level to achieve the divinity again.

Art is the most direct expression of the human divinity. When you are doing art, you don't think, you don't calculate, and you just let the invisible hand rule you. It does not mean that you are not using your mind when you are creating art; instead, you shut down the side of brain which controls all your daily behavior, all your calculation, all your anxiety, and fully open up the other side of the brain to connect to some higher spiritual level. It is the same principle as Buddhist monks are sitting in meditation. There are those rare moments when you put down all the anxiety, dissatisfaction, calculation and greed in the material world, and reach out to touch the divinity. And I believe, not only artists, but EVERYONE needs moments like that. Everyone IS ABLE TO have moments like that.

We have buried the divinity for so long, and it is time to wake up and make a difference. The neighborhood in Detroit may be depressing, the houses may be old and the people may be poor, but inside the shell of the old automobile city, I can see a shining core of human divinity because these people respect the art works and they try so hard to preserve them.

I was often wondering, what is the point to build those benches? We are not famous artists, we are just a bunch of high school students; the park won't be much better if we install several benches there. But now I understand, the benches WILL make a difference. Yes, we are grass root artists and the people in the neighborhood are grass roots. But EVERY GRASS COUNTS! The appreciation of art works and the awaking of human divinity should and will start with grass roots. If everyone of us just do a little bit, a painting on the wall can be preserved for 25 years; if everyone of us just do a little bit, Detroit art will shine its light upon the deserted buildings; if everyone of us just do a little bit, we human beings will wake up from the glossy dream of materialism and reach the pure core of human divinity.

I participated in the Wire Car project before the Spring Break and now I will devote my best to the Clark Park bench project. I feel so motivated now because although my work is grass rook, I believe together we can make a difference.

3 Michael Jackson drawings

I have been a BIG fan of Michael Jackson for two years. I was always thrilled by his music when I saw his music videos on TV, but I really started to know him and love him after his death.

Every Michael Jackson's song is my favorite song for a period of time; my MP3 is full of Michael's songs and his songs ONLY; I often lock myself in the room and dance to his songs like I'm crazy although I cannot dance at all; I can put the word "Michael Jackson" into every sentence I make in English vocab quizes; even my clothing style is strongly influenced by him and I love military coats.

Yes, I'm a HUGE fan of Michael Jackson; yet I admire him for other reasons too.

" What one wishes is to be touched by truth and to be able to interpret that truth so that one may use what one is feeling and experiencing, be it despair or joy, in a way that will add meaning to one's life and will hopefully touch others as well. This is art in its highest form. Those moments of enlightenment are what I continue to life for."                                                                                        --------- Michael Jackson

I found Michael's understanding of art extremely inspiring. Art is the direct expression of human divinity and instinct. I have those "moments of enlightenment" in my life when I feels like I'm "touched by truth". This is when you feel like your mind is completely empty but you know exactly what you are doing. Schoolwork is always stressful, especially in junior year. But I find peace in the Sculpture Studio and I am able to relax myself and concentrate only on art for 45 minutes every day. To me, feeling the coolness of clay in my hands and listening to the gentle sound when the pencil flows on the paper are the most relaxing things in the busy world.

I also agree with Michael on the point that the art will "hopefully touch others as well" because I believe the art must come from your personal understanding of the society and go back to the society to inspire more people.
In an interview on his 50th birthday, Michael said that he was always creating and pioneering, he never satisfied. Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, commented on Michael Jackson, "he was driven by his hunger to learn. He studied the greats and became greater." The idea of pioneering and creating new things enthralls me and always reminds me to take a step furthur, to take things to another level.
Last summer I created 3 drawings of Michael Jackson using 3 different method, sketching, watercolor, and painting. After Learning sketching for many years, I started to understand creativity and took the 3D structure as the foundation of my art work to creat new art forms.

I did this sketch in great details to try to realize his motion and great energy.

I used watercolor in this drawing and spent most of time on the silky hair.

I used very strong color in this painting to represent his passion and ambition. Instead of using gradual transition of shadow, I used a very wild way to paint the shadow on his face. This method is called "the contour drawing". If you step back, you would see the colors melt together harmoniously.

some old sketches

I have been learning sketching since I was 3rd Grade. I always think my Mom is a brilliant educator because she is so good at encouraging my interests and bringing them to another level. When I was in love with a guitar song, she said, "don't you think it's cool to be able to play this song by yourself? I think you should try guitar." Then I learned guitar for 4 years. When I was crazy about the fantasy world of Japanese Manga and tried hard to copy the beautiful pictures, my Mom asked me again, "do you want to draw better and create your own cartoon? Learning some sketching skills will help you a lot!" And this is how I started sketching.

I started with drawing apples. Hundreds of apples. And then I sketched more complex forms like cylinders and cubics. After more than a year I tried plaster figures and then human faces. I stopped learning sketching two years ago and started to try another types of art such as watercolor, painting, and sculpturing by myself. The sketching skills are still the foundation of all my art and 3D structures becomes natural to me. Here are some sketches that I did several years ago.

A plaster figure that I drew 4 years ago.

Another plaster figure that I drew 5 years ago.

 A drawing of Audrey Hepburn 4 years ago.

A human face drawing 4 years ago.

 Quick skeching 2 years ago.

Streams of Thoughts 1: Creativity

I used to think that sketching and painting are the "highest" form of art. I admire the flowing of colors in western paintings and the beautiful transition of light in sketching; however, I used to look down on modern drawings because I thought they are meaningless.

When I first came to America, I learn one semester of drawing and I did not like it. I remember one assignment was drawing the outline of a hand. I tried to study the structure of hand and did a precise sketching. However, I got a B because the teacher said, "do not copy your hand, you should let your pencil 'flow' on the paper." We did at lot of creative drawings with whatever material we wanted to use; I could not grasp the idea of abstraction and hated my own drawing of object "without basic 3 D structure".

Everything changed after I started taking Sculpture class, and I started to understand the idea of Creativity. You can use any materials to make whatever form you what in Sculpture class, and to me it seems even bolder than Drawing class. I tried hard to pull the long-shut door of creativity and I was amazed by what I found. I saw a girl dropping pigments on broken glass, I saw a person embedding grass on a hand model, and I found myself turning a big chunk of clay into a  real size human head with explosion on one side of its face and newspaper coming out of it.

By breaking the fetter of material, I was able to think outside the box and open the door of creativity. Once the door is wide open,  there is no way to resist the fantasy world behind it. I started to explore new materials such as wax, clay, wire, everything.

I did do a lot of creative things for fun in the past, such as paint a T-shirt and draw on a turtle shell, but this time, it is WITH PURPOSE. I'm trying to search my own art style by trying to combine different materials. I worked with snow in the winter like I was carving a marble sculpture; right now I'm doing a clay head which is going to eventually turn to half metal half clay; I'm excited to try a painting on canvas using watercolor style combined with sketching; I plan to carve a watermelon into a cluster of roses this summer.

Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I truly believe it. I was once narrow-minded, and now I'm eager to try everything. I believe that the first step to achieve something is to dream about it; creativity is not only important to art but also crutial to life. The idea of exploring and thinking outside the box can apply to any aspect of our lives.

I'm excited to do more creative art projects, and I'm excited about my life!

My Snow Sculptures

I keep the tradition to make a snow sculpture every winter. In my hometown in China, it hardly snows in the winter, but since I came to Michigan two years ago, there has never been any snow shortage! : )

I made a Sphinx in China 3 years ago, a Michael Jackson two years ago and a Lincoln last year. I did Lincoln after I took one semester of sculpture at school, and it's amazing to see how much my skill has improved after just one semester of training. I have found my passion in sculpture, because sculpture is not limited to the kind of materials that I use, and I can fully express my idea just like when I draw on paper.

Michigan snow is powedery, and I have to add water on it before I pack them. It took me 8 hours total to finish the Lincoln sculpture. I was completely exhausted when I finally finished it, but I enjoyed every moment working in the snow.

I haven't decided what theme I'm going to do this winter.I think Marilyn Monroe will be a cool one!

My current sculpture: Behind the Mask

Right now I'm working on a sculpture called Behind the Mask.The right side is going to be a Beijing Opera mask and the left side is going to be a metal skull just like the one in Terminator. The whole head is made out of clay and is going to be painted with metal glaze and regular clay paint. I have got a fansy Opera crown, too.                                                                                                                                                       

I was inspired by a Japanese modern poem about the traditional Japanese culture and the industrialization of Japan. I think China is also an excellent example of rich ancient culture meeting rapid technology advancement. Since I'm a Chinese, I feel extrememly fascinated about this topic and decided to embody this interesting contrary of tradition and modernization in this sculpture.                                                             

I have been working on this sculpture for about 2 hours every day for more than two weeks now. Hopefully I will finish carving it next week and finish this whole sculpture in May.                                                         

Enjoy the pictures and I hope you can feel my excitement and passion in this sculpture! :D                           

A Little History of My Art Journey

Art is always an important part of my life. I started drawing since I was in Third Grade. At that time, I was so in love with Japanese Manga and I wanted to learn sketching in order to explore the fantasy of Manga. As other art students, I started with drawing apples, hundreds of apples; then I learned how to draw spheres, cubes, and cylinders; later I drew mostly plaster figures and real human faces. Now, I'm exploring various kinds of art materials from clay to turtle shells, and different styles from watercolor to paint.

I was going through my picture album online and I found some interesting pieces of art that I did during the past several years. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the little pieces of my art history that I'm going to tell you.                                                                                                                                                       

This is a huge painting I did about 4 years ago. It's about 30 inches wide and 47 inches long. At that time, I haven't learned any painting skills and I just copied the colors exactly as what I saw. Why is this painting so huge? Because I made it for the window on the roof of my dad's car! The funny thing about that car is that it's name is Citroen Picasso. The car gets so hot in the summer when the sunlight comes in from the window and my dad asked me if I can draw a painting to block the sunlight. We are still using it every summer.        

 This is my first drawing of architecture and is also my first time using pen as a drawing material. I copied this one from a book, but I later drew a pen sketching of my host family's house by myself and gave them as a Thanksgiving gift.

 This is an illustration in my own novel that I wrote 5 years ago. I have written 4 novels so far and one of them is published. This one is about a story of ancient Chinese monster (a fox with nine tails) turns into human and becomes a famous artist in an non-existent Bermuda island. In the end the monster destroys himself; the Bermuda island is cursed and numerous ships sink there for no reason every year. This drawing shows the influence of Japanese manga on me art style. The left is the ancient monster and the right is the princess on the island.                                                                                                                            

  I tried to draw on a T-shirt with acrylics 2 years ago. I gave this T-shirt to my best friend as a birthday gift.

This painting is on a Turtle Shell!!! Chinese people sometimes eat a certain kind of turtle with soft shell and they keep the dry shells. I got this from my grandma 3 years ago and I decided to turn it into an art piece!

 This is a painting I did 4 years ago. After graduating from elementary school, I spent one month on a summer camp with a bunch of highschool seniors who were preparing to go to art school. I drew 10 hours a day and it sounds kind of crazy! On the summer camp, I mainly did sketching but also started to learn a little about painting. Those highschool seniors gave me a nick name "Little Girl". I cherish the memory with them because those seniors were working so hard to chase their dreams and looking forward to their future. Although I did not quite understand at that time, I shared the excitement with them.