Xu Zi once again was invited to “Sing for Hope”
In April, 2013, Xu Zi once again was invited to Sing for Hope, a public art activity taking place in New York City.
In her painting over the piano, Xu Zi chose red and yellow to draw roses, a favorite flower of the West. She combines the East and the West in that red and yellow are often used in Chinese traditional paintings of the peony, a favorite flower of China. In her A Rose Always in Fashion, an art work with her unique “Zi style”, she not only absorbed the modern Western style of impressionism and abstract art, but also used “flying white”, a technique often used in the art of Chinese calligraphy. This unique art work has won over the public as well as art lovers.
Xu Zi is passionate about public art. In 2011, she was introduced, as the first woman to Sing for Hope. Under the influence of the art philosophy of renowned artist Zhao Wuji. “Through an artist’s creation, let Westerners see the East in their eyes and Easterners see the West in their heart.” Zi Zi has strong desires to apply the modern western style of impressionism in her work. Based on “@”, a symbol most frequently used in the modern electronic times, and with the technique of Chinese traditional black-and-white ink painting, Ms. Xu Zi created her visual art work “@ Rabbit Year”. During the Spring Festival of Chinese Rabbit Year, a liaison of the mayor of New York City introduced that work to people of different ethnic, and recommended her to the Spring Festival party held by the mayor.
Xu Zi said, “I was engaged in music and calligraphy in China before I came and settled in Greenwich Village. In the Village, you know, live a great many world-class artists. Just for this reason, I have gotten to know different cultures and different ethnicities. I think we can enjoy pizza and dumplings at the same table. From 2008, I began to pay closer attention to western visual arts. Thanks to my friends who are western traditional artists, I began to learn figure painting and landscape sketch. Very often we visited the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, studied professional books on art, and discussed the marketing of art works in New York City. There is a top class art club in my neighborhood. I often go there to visit exhibitions and learn the sketching of live models. I also often visit those art exhibitions held by Forbes. Later, when I uploaded some of my figure paintings on the Internet, some Chinese users even said that they could see the style of Rubens. What made me even more surprised is that I was even sent orders for my paintings. One of the buyers was a worker from Forbes. It is the market demand that inspired me to develop my potentiality in visual art. In this activity of piano painting, I have more opportunities to talk modern painting styles with modern artists. They have given me more inspiration. I would like to try to combine the art elements in Chinese calligraphy and western impressionism in my creation.
Xu Zi believes that her exploratory work belongs to the world. Many important art works are far beyond country boundaries and time and space. West and East artists should learn from each other. They can merge their styles in their art creation and find an art market in the increasingly smaller earth village. What they are facing is an earth village in electronic times, which is becoming smaller and smaller, while the artists’ field of vision becomes wider and wider.
The inscription on the piano, “We choose love” is quoted from the victims of the Newton shootings. Xu Zi would like to devote it to all victims of the world.
Not long before, the host of the activity assigned Xu Zi a new job, asking her to help a team from a high school in Manhattan to do their creative paining on another piano. Xu Zi said, “It’s my honor to get this space to show my talent. It’s also a good opportunity for my study.”
Email: xuzi88@yahoo.com