China is a country steeped in a strong cultural tradition of art. A piece of that tradition—with its own contemporary flair—is making its way to the Santa Maria Public Library’s Shepard Hall in the exhibit The Odyssey of a Chinese Artist by May Kwok.
Kwok was born and raised in Hong Kong, and still calls the city home. She comes to the Central Coast often to visit her daughter who lives in Lompoc, and is seeking to share her art in the area.
“If the library permits, I would like to run some workshops in Chinese painting and calligraphy,” Kwok said in an email interview with the Sun. “I would like to have some demonstrations in my opening reception, if possible, for those who are interested in Chinese art, and beginners are welcome.”
Kwok earned two degrees in fine arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her second degree focused specifically on art history. This was when she learned the style of ink paintings from the Song Dynasty all the way to the works of the Qing Dynasty.
“I did not only study traditional art techniques, but also contemporary Chinese and Western art,” she wrote. “Since the culture of the East met the West centuries ago, their art mix well together.”
Much of Kwok’s work reflects a traditional Chinese style. Many of her pieces to be featured in the exhibit are presented on a round canvas called a circular fan leaf—one of several traditional canvas styles of Chinese art, which include album leaves, hanging scrolls, and hand scrolls. Though these works may display a mastery of Chinese artistic techniques, they’re also blended with uniquely Western influences.
“Though I use Western media in some of my paintings, such as acrylic on canvas, the appearance is in Chinese style,” she wrote. “I applied this fusion of material to express the feeling of today’s Chinese economy and lifestyles shifting towards the Western.”
Many of the pieces in Kwok’s upcoming show include short poems that inform each piece painted in Chinese writing. Calligraphy was an integral part of Kwok’s arts education, and she uses it to tell a story with each piece.
“A lot of them reveal my feelings of the nostalgia for my homeland,” she said. “Each piece of my artwork tells a story that I experienced in China and my reminisces of traditional Chinese arts and culture.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne enjoys people’s stories. Contact him at [email protected].
