There was one aspect of "art school" in any sense that attracted me, and that was the artists that I would be surrounded with while attending the school. I ended up having that anyway when I was in the states, in fact I had it for years before college became a road half traveled. Many of my friends were artists and when they were too busy, I had my art community in town. The most valuable lessons you can get from any art class, you usually find through one of the other artists in the class, bouncing ideas off each other and offering each other your trial and error experience. It was this way to such a degree in my college art class that I wondered why we artists pay to go to college at all rather than just meeting up in large groups and do as we would in class. I have learned more from other artists than I have ever begun to learn in any class or from any book, and when around artists, it compels you to paint more and to reach new heights. I had this opportunity many times with friends and with great groups like California Artists for Humanity. Drawing (or whatever your poison may be) with a fellow artist offers you something no book or teacher can get you. Perhaps this is why Van Gough and Gauguin spent so much time together. Other than them both being artists, they had next to nothing in common; one was an antisocial insecure catastrophe and the other an insatiable glutton for women and booze and was finally taken down by a hooker in France by way of syphilis (of course, Van Gough was pretty much vicariously taken down by the same: story has it he cut off his ear to give to the prostitute he had fallen in love with after his buddy Gauguin took her for a ride one Christmas which gave him that nasty infection that took him down).
I didn't know how much I missed being around artists. I haven't sat down and drawn with another artist since I moved here and rarely get an opportunity to talk art/concept/what have you, besides going through ideas with Andy. Last weekend I was asked to come draw with this photographer, Li Jiang, which if I have the right characters means "inside river" or "into river" which is hysterically fitting. A Chinese euphemism for sex is to say "fish into water", and from what I can see, Li Jiang isn't his given name but more likely his art name.
Li Jiang was apparently looking for an American artist and model to go on a three month tour around China in a mobile home, taking pictures of said model in various beautiful places around China. He also wanted to do some sort of art exhibit featuring beautiful nude Chinese women, which is kind of my area of expertise (most of my best art is female nudes). My friend, Sue, had shown him my art and he wanted to get a vibe for me, so I came on down. A few hours drawing sounded like a welcomed break anyway, so I packed up my little easel and headed down.
As it turns out, he's a big fan of primarily two kinds of art: traditional and nude. His favorite photographer is Spencer Tunic,
whose known for his elaborate public nudes. While we waited for Sue to show up, he showed me all of his favorite art and some of his travels around the world and we talked about what we liked about the artists and paintings (mind you we did this almost entirely in Chinese which I was pretty amazed went as well as it did.. At this point, I can have a pretty long conversation in Chinese with a few clarifications to new words here and there.). Pretty early on, I got the gist for him. He's a moderately successful photographer with traditional art training who probably got into drawing so he could have a good excuse to have women take their clothes off for him, not that I'm criticizing the man, lord knows I took full advantage of my artist rights in my time, but his attention to nudity is a bit overwhelming at times which is why I think his chosen name is so fitting.Li Jiang hasn't drawn in nine years due to being so busy but was very vocal about how I had no excuse to not draw every day of my life. I tried to show him the hypocritical nature of that statement, but he didn't seem to get it. He says artists should learn from Van Gough and forget about money or jobs and paint every day of their life. I told him that every artist wishes they could paint every day but few can because they have to live, eat and make enough money for the next canvas. I also pointed out that Van Gough sold a total of one painting in his entire life to his dentist and wasn't appreciated until after his death.
All in all, I had a great time. The Infamous Doc posed for us for an hour or so, and tried not to let his head fall too much when he kept falling asleep. I say infamous because Doc has received an ungodly amount of attention out here. Every time we meet with photographers, they just can't keep their hands off him. I'm sure it's great for his ego, but before all this, Doc was pretty well set there, and talks of being a king with dreams of people bowing to him. Well, he'll finally have a shrine in his honor to some degree. This month, there will be a billboard in Zhongshan, China bearing Doc's image. A freaking billboard.
In the studio, Li Jiang told me that we would draw Doc's upper body, so I got to work on my small sheet of paper on my portable easel that I swiped from the Canton fair two years ago, and he started on his giant piece of paper. He ended up only drawing doc's face and focused on the detail. Seeing his drawing showed me why all these people keep wanting to photograph Doc; they see a different man than I do. Maybe they see what Doc wants them to see, maybe they see what Doc wants to become. Either way, their view of him is not my own, and I think that shows.
Next weekend, I'm planning on going back to the studio to draw my friend, Emilia with Li Jiang again. He also said he wants to draw and photograph me, which is kinda new to me. I've had plenty of models before but I haven't done a lot of modeling for another artist. He also keeps trying to convince his way into nude photographs of me but I'm just not doing that. Sue assures me that it doesn't have to be nude but being that it keeps being brought up I think I'll have to nip this in the but my own way. Sue is naive and far too nice with business people and she sees Li Jiang as business, so if I want anything really clarified, I have to do it myself. She sort of assumes people will just pay the deserved amount without talking about it, people will just be honest without questioning it and that people won't do harm; not Chinese people anyway. After the Zhanghe and GouYan sittuation, I don't know how she still believes that, but I know I'm not about to head off that problem again now. I've learned to not let her keep the reigns with these things. She's a great friend and we've become close, but you just don't mix Sue and business, because Sue has patterns she can't seem to break and I've lost enough friends at this point that I'm not giving her the chance to mess this one up again. Besides, I know her intentions are good, she's just misguided.
Here are some pictures of Li Jiang and I drawing.
I don't usually sloutch like this. That's better.
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