Loving Painting

In the afternoon of May 12th, 2008, a big earthquake tore apart the earth of Wenchuan, shook the whole world, and shocked every virtuous soul. At that moment, it’s so difficult for Wang Zixuan to bear the megaseism that she could only silently pray for the Dead for one day, two, three … Time could not heal the wounds, and blood of the Dead seemed to be floating in front of her. With tears in her eyes, she took up paintbrushes, day and night, “carving” a bloody Buddha in strokes that were similar to the marks of a pitching tool. In those days, she couldn’t stand watching TV, listening to the radio, nor could she hold her tears or put down paintbrushes. For over 40 days, she worked for more than 10 hours a day to finish Wailing Wall, in which numerous souls, in the form of black lumps, seemed to be redeemed in her whispering incantation …

Wang Zixuan’s pathos and love helped her finish Wailing Wall, as well as set the tone for her styles and languages in this phase: first, to Wang Zixuan, art is identical to the sympathetic pray and self conciliation of souls. The process of praying is just the process of painting. Second, the convoluted strokes stand for her repeating prays, like the twisting of prayer beads by the Buddhists when they are doing zazen, or the repeating of OM MANI PADME HUM or any other sutras and incantations. Therefore, the convoluted stroke in the painting is her style or language. Thereafter, she started, with the convoluted strokes, to create a series of images of Buddha and Bodhisattva with the perseverance and techniques of grotto Buddha carvers. In that process, she has turned the convoluted strokes into the marks of riving knife and pitching tool by grotto Buddha carvers.

Wang Zixuan started to learn dancing at an early age. In 1991, she was appreciated by Ms. Gu Jianfen for her beautiful voice, and came to Beijing to learn vocality and hence settled here. Her talent for singing and dancing drew her to a number of performances and she is supposed to achieve higher in the performing circles. But the tranquility in her nature drove her away from vanity and uproar. When she arrived in Shangri la for the first time in 2002, she burst into tears in face of Meili Snow Mountain. As she stepped into the temple on the mountain, she appeared to be so familiar with the Buddha and Buddhist musical instruments and felt like being so summoned by nature and Buddha that she even dashed on the snowy land at an altitude of over 4000 meters … Hence, she formed a connection with Buddhism. The next year, she donated all her savings to build 13 pagodas for Wunongding village, and later on, she selflessly donated to support a number of children… With her goodness, love and beauty, Wang has moved everybody she helped, and everyone that learns about her deeds in Shangri la, where she is a legend, as well as an image ambassador.

Since the SARS outbreak in 2003, Wang has given up the career as a performer to be a painter. Her early paintings are a bit expressionistic. Perhaps, to her, painting is as good as abstinency, especially on the occasion of praying for the Dead in the earthquake. The vow to create images for Buddha is the major task of her practice. Therefore, her Buddha endows a feeling of accumulation and solitude in carving Buddha day and night with riving knife and pitching tool on high mountain ridges. Wang said she loved stone sculptures of Han Dynasty, and also enjoyed the feeling of chiseling Buddha in grotto. To express the feeling, in addition to the chiseling strokes, she replaced brushes with knives on the top layer to create knife marks. For instance, the work of A Thousand Buddhas is just like the embossment in the Thousand-Buddha Cave. It’s not for verisimilitude and the images appear to be seemingly illusive, but every stroke and mark of the convoluted marks by pitching tools appears solid. Perhaps for her earnest vow to esteem the Buddha all seasons and all life, in the quadruplet of four seasons, the tone in Spring is not worldly green, but white. To her, the whole year's work depends on a good start in spring, and purity is priority. The blue tone in Summer is boundless and tranquil. Fall is in a golden brown tone and the beams of light depicted with extruding and intensified strokes dawns on the audience. The black tone in Winter reminds the audience of the sympathy of Buddha.

From the quadruplet of four seasons, Wang Zixuan started to explore symbolism and imagery other than the pitching strokes. As it is said: “There is much to do beyond poems.” As a gymnosophist, painting might be a trifling skill, but to Wang, the process of painting is exactly the process of practice. As she advances in practice, her paintings are sure to improve.

By Li Xianting

June 23rd, 2012