My uncle the artist

So did I mention that my uncle is a famous artist? He's won awards, written books, curated shows, exhibited around the world, and is hosting me for this weekend I'm in Houston. His name is Charles Liu, and his work looks something like this:


Returning Home at Night, 21 5/8"x30 1/8", Ink

You can check the rest of his work out here: http://cliu.chinesewebcenter.net/ink-1.htm

His ink and watercolor paintings form a fusion of traditional Chinese "shan sui" (mountain & water) paintings -- with a modern aesthetic. I've always wanted to hear what he thought about my work... and at the same time have been terrified as to what his thoughts may be. It turns out he's happy with the direction I'm going, and that my Chinese American upbringing has brought about an interesting fusing of different themes...

It's obvious by looking at his work that I've got a long, long way to go... but it's always heartening to hear that =).

I managed to wrangle a few weeks of art lessons from him when I was very young, and after almost fifteen years we sat down for another lesson today. I was especially curious about techniques with ink and rice paper -- for while I had gone to Chinese school as a kid, I had never taken any traditional Chinese painting classes.

So yeah, painting with ink on rice paper is HARD.

Here's my sad, sad piece.


Don't look at it too long, you'll start laughing and I'll start crying. Scroll back up and look at my uncle's work some more =)

It's cool though, I definitely want to experiment more with the texture and qualities of rice paper. It's tough to get a hang of, but it's definitely a technique I want in my toolbox for the future!

Alright, 'night all --