Here is the link to the CShop Christmas Party. It is a WeChat scan code (not clickable)

Artist Yin Shi Long

Speaking with Artist Yin Shi Long today, December 14, 2016, it was nice to learn about how the Artist(s) think about their work. Artist Yin has been an active artist in Guizhou for many years. Although his work is truly professional quality, he has done many kinds of work to support himself, his wife and six year old daughter. Artist Yin paints murals for people, does photography, and teaches art. Over the years he has done many kinds of work, often with the artist’s eye for design. He comes from a family of working people, not independently wealthy. His father always had some kind of art in the home, especially the lifelike tiny figurines made of bread dough.

Artist Yin’s Uncle Yin Guang Zhong (Uncle Yin ) was an inspiration to him and helped teach him in his teenage years. Today we talked about his thinking behind the paintings and abstract head sculptures. You may notice that the faces in the paintings have no eyes. Also, there are also no eyes in the sculptures. That is because many people are blind to the beauty of nature around them. It may have something to do with the fact that people are so busy making money. Many people only care about money. Some artists are criticized by their friends because they don’t make very much money. Yet the artists see the beauty around them.

Angry Stone of the Mountain God

One painting is a called the Angry Stone of the Mountain God. It shows a natural stone in the Guizhou area that Artist Yin passes every day. The painting has a darkness, showing the anger of the Mountain God, which represents Nature. After Yin had completed the painting, his anger about the polluted environment was diminished. The art was a kind of release of emotion. Artist Yin explained that people are angry, but they don’t know how to express this anger. The artist can help create this communication. Like a volcano about to erupt, people have emotions which they do not express. Then sometimes there is an explosion.
The many faces sculpture visualizes the moods of a person. A person really has many faces depending upon what the surrounding conditions create. A person can be good or bad, often depending on the environment that this person is in. You may feel that someone is a good person, but from a different angle, or in a different environment he is different. People can be good, bad, kind, frightened, aggressive, happy, or sad. Time and environment creates many faces for one person.
From his father, Artist Yin learned how to use bread dough to make figurines. This work is not displayed this month at the gallery, however, he has given us some pictures of his other work. These particular figurines tell a Chinese story about the punishment of a bad person. Chinese have a long history. This story is one known to many Chinese, from the Qing Dynasty in Guizhou Province: “Mr. Ding Kills Andehai”.

The Artist creates a mood for each person. Each person can see something different in the Artist’s work. Artist Yin gave us his visualization.

The Art of Yin Shi Long will be on display at Shirley Gallery until the end of the month (Dec 2016).

Yu Jiahua was born in Shanghai in 1952. When he was 14 years old, China began the great revolution of culture (Cultural Revolution). All of the schools in China stopped having class. Mr. Yu picked up a camera and loved it. The revolution and freedom from school allowed him to travel. He began taking pictures with a rented camera.
He first came to Guizhou at age 17 (1969) because in that time President Mao ordered him to leave Shanghai, as many city people had to go to the countryside. This was intended to educate the young people about the world and rural China. He began learning English in 1976 as it had become fashionable. He was not a student at that time and he had to learn by himself from records, radio, TV, and other English materials.
He began taking Guizhou photos in 1969 and has been taking pictures of Guizhou for over forty years. Around 2000 his photography was very famous in Guizhou and was published in the Guizhou Daily News and several other Guizhou publications.

Diana helps translate for De Deng and made a great contribution to the artist’s presentation on www.tourguizhou.com . She kept an eye on things quite well.

This is an incredible collection of ancient China photos:

Ancient China Link

Posted:GuideinChina

Last year I helped save a library from abandonment when Ray fell ill and had to leave China for the USA . . . see Ray’s Library . The library was moved into storage, but unfortunately, there was a leak in the roof of the new storage room. We lost five or ten percent of the books to mold and pages that are glued together. I was able to save several books by laying them out in the sun.

We have thrown out some books and elevated others in the hope of saving the rest of the library. We even attempted an interior repair of the roof, but I am not particularly impressed with the workmanship.