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Hi,Dear Friends
How are you?
Time is flying. My first and second Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art Workshops have lasted for 10 weeks and 8 weeks, respectively, and will be completed in 2 weeks. The third has been ongoing for 3 weeks and will be finished in another 5 weeks. The fourth was completed on Sunday, February 2, 2025, and I will have the fifth and final one on March 8, 2025, during my twelfth trip to America.
This is the first time I have worked with several different groups of Americans (Chinese American adults and children, international students, and American adults) simultaneously. Since the participants, the duration of each lesson, and the total time all differ significantly from those for K-12 students whom I mainly taught from 2009 to 2020, this requires me to invest considerable time and energy into determining what and how to share or teach according to the distinct needs of each group.
For example, on the surface, I taught all groups Chinese Baimiao painting. However, when working with the second workshop, which consists of professor, art instructors, doctors, and engineers, my key focus was on the techniques of this type of Chinese painting from the Warring States Period (476 BC - 221 BC) until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Not only did I share with them 18 kinds of line drawing techniques and the most classical Chinese Baimiao painting works on flowers and birds from the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), but I also guided them to learn about the greatest artists in each dynasty and their most famous representatives and their impact on Chinese painting history, providing them with as many resources as possible to continue their study after my short lessons. Additionally, I guided them to experience some figure paintings in Dunhuang Grotto Murals and tried to lead them to study a Chinese art topic in depth as much as possible.
But when I shared a Chinese painting with the group of Chinese American adults and children at the church, my focus was primarily on sharing Chinese culture: poetry, painting, and music, followed by art techniques. While skills or techniques are important, they constitute only part of what I aimed to share and teach. This is because I agree with many of my professors from both the China National Academy of Arts and the China Central Academy of Fine Arts who said that techniques are easy to learn, but mastering the essence behind a Chinese painting is not. Anyone in a normal mental state can master techniques, but only a few people in history have become artists due to their profound cultural attainments.
Therefore, when I guided them to practice painting a lotus, they not only learned about the symbolism of the lotus in Chinese culture - why Chinese people and artists love it and enjoy expressing it through different art forms; some interesting meanings behind its different colors; its relationship with Buddhism, Daoism, and folk beliefs; but also, they learned a famous Chinese poem about it, some ancient Chinese characters from the poem; learned to recite and sing it with music I created for the poem; and studied some of the most famous ancient Chinese prose about the lotus, etc.
Current practice seems successful in the first, second, and fourth art workshops, and one of the gains I have gotten from this studying, thinking, and practicing is: Teaching Others Teaches Oneself. The more I teach, the more I desire to study; and the more I study, the more I want to improve myself.
So, now, I have made some new study and travel plans to continue improving my art theory and practice level while broadening my horizons in various ways.
How about you? Do you have anything special to share?
Notes:
Photo 1: My third English instructor, Mrs. Lorraiane, and I were so glad to meet in "my" classroom at OTC
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Sincerely, I am just a lifelong learner in the arts of painting, music, English, management and Chinese art teaching, and work on the website in my free time. I would really like to do something with what I have learned and make this website a little electronic bridge for cross-cultural and integrated/comprehensive art and Chinese language studying. This way, I can help others while improving myself.
Thank you always for your understanding, guidance and assistance and if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to write to info@ebridge.cn .
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Feb 9, 2025
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