originally appeared on the nwasianweekly.com
January 18, 2002
BACK TO ANN-MARIE STILLION: WRITING

Right: Zhi Lin’s “Five Capital Executions in China: Starvation,” 1999 (detail)

Images provided by Seattle Academy of Fine Art

Drawing faithfully, seeing with an open mind

By Ann-Marie Stillion
Northwest Asian Weekly

In a world that rushes headlong, Chinese American painter Zhi Lin grants profound attention to the smallest detail and encourages his students to do the same. His art-making process is a convergence of rigorous Chinese art education driven by the framework of 14th-century European master painters and his own place in time.

Lin began teaching painting and drawing at the University of Washington’s School of Art in August 2001. There, he also serves as affiliate faculty for the China Studies Program within the Jackson School of International Studies.

This summer he is teaching a weeklong workshop at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art on Capitol Hill. The intimacy and focus of this studio atmosphere gives artists a unique opportunity to be exposed to master teachers whose life experiences, training and approach often go far beyond what we imagine to be the practice of art in the present day.

Lin’s upcoming class on portrait drawing will include anatomy studies, copying from selected master works, slide presentations and development of a formal approach to drawing that students can carry with them beyond the classroom.

With so much discipline required, the artist says he tries to soften the teaching with jokes and Chinese proverbs to get his point across.

“Easy to draw a dragon, very hard to draw your fingers” describes how much easier it is to draw something that is imaginary than something that is familiar and ordinary.

Compelled by truths in art and history, Lin has worked on “Crossing History/Crossing Cultures,” a series of paintings, in studios throughout the world, including London, St. Louis and Seattle. The meticulous 12-by-7-foot paintings were Lin’s own response to the horrors of Tiananmen Square and “the human propensity to violence,” the artist says. They have taken more than 12 years to complete.

The artist borrows from divergent traditions. Edged with ribbons, his paintings roll up for travel like Tibetan thangkas. From the Renaissance in Europe, he takes the idea of conveying an exacting realism — a technique meant to drive home the certainty of God through imagery. Lin suggests his contemporary works reflect a dialogue about capital punishment.

The 44-year-old artist encourages students to follow his lead in exploring the world in order to draw it. He goes beyond observation. For example, the “Crossing History” series renders horses saddled with vintage Chinese gear. To prepare for it, the artist went to a horse farm, rode horses and studied horseback riding for a year.

He makes thousands of sketches of every aspect of a finished work. Once he drove cross-country to see firsthand an exhibit of historical Chinese saddles. He calls this approach “accountable drawing” and bristles at the thought of artists who are hobbyists or merely relaxing. For Lin, art is the result of hard work.

In the bottom of the painting “Drawing and Quartering,” a handful of dandelions have fallen to the ground. Lin tells how, “like a crazy guy, I just sat on the sidewalk and drew the flowers. I looked like a transient.” He says emphatically, “I was drawing weeds, but I faithfully study everything I draw and put it together. I have to have a fact back up everything I draw.”

“It is not a technique class or a craft-oriented class. It is more a concept-oriented class.”

When Gary Faigin, the artistic director and co-founder of the Seattle Academy of Fine Art, first heard about Lin, he called him immediately.

“We (at SAFA) have never before had an instructor with a background or advanced understanding of Asian art, which Zhi references in all of his work. His approach to teaching, with an emphasis on years of hard work, discipline and trust in one’s teacher — I think of as more typical of an Asian educational atmosphere than the more ‘do your own thing’ mode that often prevails in the West.

“Obviously, Zhi’s work is also a direct response to Tiananmen Square and the ongoing political struggle in China. ... There is an intense sense of grievance and involvement with social issues in Zhi’s work that makes many of his American counterparts seem complacent by comparison.”

An open mind, more than anything else, leads to seeing clearly, the teacher and painter believes. One math major came to his class at the university, just wanting to take an art class for fun, but now is a graduate student in art.

Lin stresses that students may come to his classes from a variety of backgrounds. He focuses on “having an open mind first,” along with a willingness to put in a lot of hard work.

“Making a good image doesn’t just require skill. It requires an idea, a good methodology.”