ARTISTS STATEMENT
The Art of Chinese Brush Painting totally delights my dancers sensibilities. Chinese Brush Painting has introduced me, as artist and teacher, to a whole new tactile world of expression with an ancient and fascinating history of over 3000 years. This art, shared with my students, is like dancing on rice paper.
The spontaneous technique is about movement and space, executed with strength and control along with varying rhythms of brushstrokes. To me, it is the art of the line , the brushstroke, be it a long and flowing orchid leave or a tiny dot; the majesty of the bamboo leaf; or the strength of the bone stroke. Its all about the line and how it moves across the space gracefully, with strength and spirit&much like the art of dance.
Perhaps that is why I fell in love with Chinese Brush Painting and took to it so naturally. The discipline and technique involved is imminently translatable to dance. Discovering the unique bamboo brushes with their variety of animal hairs, the porcelain dishes, the best Chinese Ink and the variety of papers for specific subjects and styles was as exciting as my first pair of toe shoes when I was a girl.
The philosophical as well as physical journey of Chinese Brush Painting is mastered by copying the esteemed Chinese masters from centuries past. The process is much like musicians performing a classical composers work and making it their own. The structure is the foundation; the execution thereof is interpretative.
A good Chinese Brush Paining will capture the artists spirit (chi) AND contain masterful brushwork.
For spirit without technique and technique without spirit will neither capture nor do justice to the essence of subject matter and artist.
When mastery of the brush meets abandonment of self, something else, beautiful and artistically greater, takes over. Perhaps it is the spirit that existed before the body and will exist after the body is gone. This zone is what all artists, whatever their medium, be it writing, dancing, music, acting or any of the visual arts, have in common. This captures the universal experience of the Asian concept of Tao and the Western concept of God. One is transported to another level as the trained vehicle of higher Genius, on angel's wings.
