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.