The Sixth Day 2008

　　Place: Hu Ming’s Home in Kangaroo Valley

　　I stayed in the mountain at night and went to Hu Ming’s studio on the second day. She was painting a large scaled painting of transparent army uniform. Bright red background, grass green military uniform. Underneath the transparent military uniform are the strong and fit waist and the rounded buttocks, which are indistinctly visible.

　　Ling: In the female soldier series, “transparent military uniform series” is a very distinct one. It has significantly gone beyond reality, I’m afraid it’s not only the celebration of the beauty of human body.

　　Hu: Well, I can never understand politics. In the common logic, I joined the army since I was 15, I should be politically matured in this “revolutionary melting pot”. But the organization was testing me all the time because they thought I was politically immature. In fact, I do love the party very much, but I don’t know why I cannot join the party.

　　Here is a joke. During the political examination of my entrance test to Tianjin Academy of Fine Art in 1979, they asked when the “Great Strike of February 7, 1923” happened. I did not remember at all, suddenly I remembered the dialogue of Granny Li in “The Red Lantern”: “In the year 23 of the Republic of China, the Beijing-Hankou Railway workers established a general union in Zhengzhou….” I also had no ideas of how to convert between the Republic and AD, so I answered: “Year 23 of the Republic of China.” The last question was what the superiority of socialism is, which worth 30 marks! I completely don’t know how to answer, however, I suddenly remembered the song , so I just wrote down the lyrics of this song and handed in my examination paper as the very first.

　　I didn’t pass the political examination in the end. The school went to the army and investigated me. The elder commander of the Political Department said: “This ‘muddle’ comrade has bad memories. But the organization can guarantee she’s competent and politically reliable.”

　　Ling: That’s marvelous. There are many people saying you have bad memories, but I don’t think so. You have excellent memories, it’s your brain that filters and excludes the uselessness for paintings outside the memories.

　　Hu: You said right, politics is the first to be excluded. In my opinion, it narrows the coverage of any artworks when political element is added, which also shorten the vitality of the artworks. I start creating from my own direct experience, using painting to express my personal feelings. It would be too narrow to interpret my paintings only from political viewpoint.

　　Ling: I actually would like to hear your interpretation of the transparent military uniform.

　　Hu: That kind of thing does not exist. I purposely create it. Just imagine the absolute beauty of the young bodies underneath the transparent military uniform! Maybe I have addiction to uniforms. I used to kept several sets of uniforms back from the 70s, but my mother gave them to the victims, only left few military caps of all kinds: with brim, without brim, big brim ones and cotton-padded ones. I can paint uniforms from that period even with my eyes are shut.

　　Ling: The transparent uniform that you painted is the reflection of you-rebellion.

　　Hu: I have always been a rebellious child, until I went abroad, my rebellious nature was able to be gradually revealed. My transparent uniforms subvert myself first, then subvert the tradition and the public visual habit.

　　The body of the female soldier is nearly finished. After looking at it for a while, Hu Ming said: “Do you think there is something missing? There should be a gun in the hands.” She pulled out the picture of guns from a pile of data, “if I’m going to paint a gun, then the hand needs to be repainted, and also have to do some changes to the arm.” After she has done the changes to the arm, she quickly painted a AK-47. “I’m so familiar with this gun.” She looked at it with few steps back, “well, the composition of this painting is stable now, isn’t it?” I laughed: “It is a fortune that I’m the one seeing you like this, if it’s other people, they must add extra sexual fantasy onto this gun.”

　　We both laughed out loud.

　　Frog raise, the wood became invisible at one time, and we placed ourselves in the white mist. Another while, mountain breeze started bursting and it brought the rain. “It’s going to be raining.” Hu Ming said.

　　The Seventh Day 2008

　　Place: Kangaroo Valley

　　It was pouring outside. I should be back in the city center, but I had to stay in the mountain at that moment. The rain was scary in the mountains, everything disappeared in a distance, and you could not see anyone there. I was a bit nervous: “The rain is terrible.” But Hu Ming was kind of relaxed: “The rain in the mountain is like this. The rain is God’s tears, the wind is God’s laughs and the lightening is God opened up his eyes to look at you.” I asked: “Are you scared?” Most of the time, she’s staying on her own in the mountain. Hu Ming answered: “Not at all! I especially love raining days. Everything disappears, only left very limited space- the painting and me. I can fully enjoy the status of isolation after excluding the entire visual disturbance. This is my gift from God.

　　The rain stopped in the evening. We went back to the kitchen with a torch. Hu Ming opened up a bottle of wine, said: “come on, let’s have something to drink.” I said: “I don’t do alcohols.” “Then you are missing a great pleasure in life. Tipsy feeling is the best, painting becomes easy and relaxed.” I said; “Yes, drinking and painting, that’s the momentum of female hero.”

　　Hu Ming’s ancestors were from the Hun (Xiongnu) tribes. Huyaner is one of the four major ancient Hun surnames. Huns ruled the northern central plains during Han Dynasty, which was banished later, split into South and North branches. Northern Huns moved westward from Mobei. Southern Huns then moved into the central plains, changed their surname from Huyaner to Huyan, and part of the clan simplified it into “Hu”. Hu Ming’s family was derived from the latter. These descendants eventually settled in Liaocheng, Guan County, in Shandong province. Up to the present, there are still more than a dozen of Hu families living in her home village.

　　Ling: Ordinarily, your painting should be more masculine according to your character. However, feminine absolutely dominates your paintings from your “Big Girl Series”, “Female Soldier Series” to “Transparent Military Uniform Series”, the very few male character in your paintings are just props. Why do you exclusively paint women?

　　Hu: Because I’m familiar to that. I joined the army when I was 15, my whole military life was spent in a female surrounded environment. We did everything together, just like a big family. There was no secret among us. I could grasp all their moods, and any emotional changes of theirs; I could even catch their manners without open my eyes. But it will be totally different with men.

　　Ling: Can we consider your painting as the female art of the female artist?

　　Hu: In fact, it is a discrimination to single out the term such as “female artist” and “female art”. This kind of concept is based on the viewpoint from a patriarchal society. Why don’t we say “male artist”, “male art”? Both men and women are the same in creative thinking. The special and extra attention to female art has always had the pathetic feeling. I also dislike the idea of International Women’s Day. It is actually a declaration of “women are weak”. When I was little, my mother used to have half day off work, but she had to do the housework for the next half of the day. What a “laboring” day!

　　Ling: These make you sound like a feminist…

　　Hu: Although I am a woman, I am a human being in the first place. I put myself on the same level as men. In fact, there is no difference between men and women despite the genital system. I did the same work as men in the army, even works that male soldier could not do, I did better than them.

　　I like the beauties under my aesthetic frame, the beauty of women should not be just for men, but also for women. Women should be strong and confident. I like women’s expression and the change of their muscles when they are laboring.

　　Hu Ming had already drunk half a bottle at this point.

　　The Eighth Day 2010

　　Place: On the Way to Kangaroo Valley

　　Hu Ming’s artistic creation came into the climax stage in 2010.

　　I was driving Hu Ming to her studio in Kangaroo Valley. Bob usually drove the car, but he was occupied that day. The direction that Bob wrote me was things like “turn left 200 meters after you see Shell”, I had no confidence in that because on the highway, if you missed the intersection you had to go around for another tens of kilometers. It was lucky to have Hu Ming with me in the car, she could guide for me.

　　I was really nervous on the road, kept asking Hu Ming whether I was on the right way. The most frequent answer I got from her was: “eh? I don’t think I have been here before.” And suddenly she would cheer up and said; “I’ve seen that billboard before, this should be the right way.” I said: “Please, you came here every week, no less than 500 times in ten years!” She replied: “So what?”

　　Therefore, our conversation started from this topic.

　　u: People always say I am really a muddle, actually that’s right. The things that I lost in my life are countless. I was in charge of subscribing newspaper and magazine in the army, there were so many invoices. When it came to the year-end, there were more than 300 Yuan less, all I can do was to beg my mother to cover it up for me. The most dangerous experience was that electrical short cut in the broadcasting studio, I climbed up to the ceiling to inspect and muddled up the wires, I was electrically stunned. Until dinnertime, no one trumpeted, they could not find me in the broadcasting studio, so they went to the ward and saw the opening vent on the ceiling. That was how I got my life back.

　　Ling: Based on my understanding of you, I think your mind is very well structured. Your “silliness” should be considered as “out of state”.

　　Hu: Yes, just like something has been taken away from reality. It happened all the time, such as in the car, I would imagine a picture when I saw those black and yellow barricades on the road, they were turning into cats’ tails, standing in the middle of the road, very interesting. The few hours of travelling in the car to the mountains gave me space to conceive. To grasp a idea and fully expended it. I have a small notebook in the car, which records my ideas and sketches, all very detailed. So when Bob talked to me in the car, I replied but could not hear a thing or remembered. He called me dreaming girl.

　　Ling: This dreaming should be considered as “day dreaming”.

　　Hu: Exactly. You know what, I’ve written a movie script in 1986 called , which was also published in August 1st movie magazine in 1986. It is a children science fiction. The protagonist is a primary school student called Zhang Xiaofan. He loves to fantasize, and indulges himself into the whimsies that has nothing to do with reality. For instance, since the wheels are spherical, damage can be avoided in a collision; when encounter the traffic lights, cars can fly low altitude in order to reduce the traffic jam; the road is the speed changing conveyer, which is operated by solar. Also, there are lots of pipes in the kitchen at home, soy sauce, vinegar and other spices flow out from there. In the eyes of the teacher and his mother, Xiaofan is a child with ADHD, therefore he is considered as mentally disordered and sent to the lunatic asylum… In the end of the movie, Zhang Xiaofan is cured and becomes a good boy, goes to the classes primly and wearing the red scarf…he is disappearing with his schoolmates into the distance.

　　Ling: This Zhang Xiaofan reminds me of you.

　　Hu: But my result is better than Zhang Xiaofan, I can daydream endlessly throughout my artistic creation.

　　It was an open valley in front of us. Hu Ming cheered up: “I know it now! Here we are!” We finally got home.

　　The Ninth Day 2010

　　Place: Kangaroo Valley

　　It was Kangaroo Valley again. A huge fishpond was built outside the grey house. There were two 2 meters long golden koi, leisurely chasing us. Hundreds of their descendants in various sizes were swimming through the weeds and rocks. “This is Bob, and this is me.” Hu Ming pointed at that two big ones, “I like watching fish, and sometime I can spend hours watching them.” No wonder the fish in Hu Ming’s painting are so lively.

　　We stayed in the mountain that night. It was extremely quiet. In the dark, kangaroos, hares, fox, wombat, possum and owls all came out and occupied the garden, and they knew the guest was here.

　　Around 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning, birds started singing in the mountains. The animals scurried home to rest by riding the early morning lights, left footprints on the porch.

　　Hu Ming got up before 6 o’clock, and started her works of the day.

　　She transported a load of firewood to the studio by using the unicycle trolley. She lightened up the fire, and the flames brought vitality to this silent room. She picked two pumpkins from the vegetable garden, chopped off two pieces and put them on the stove.

　　The studio was extended two times in size. The finished paintings from the were put inside there. Again, this was another brand new series, animals were the dominant in these paintings. We chatted while she’s painting.

　　Hu: I’m always looking for new things. The subject and content of my concept is always changing. When new pictures arise in my head, I will follow them and get lost. Every lost state can be developed into a series. And sometime it’s only one piece.

　　Ling: These paintings, it is really close and intimate between the animals and human beings. They look very cute, but also pitiful.

　　Hu: Can you tell their wretchedness? Animals and human beings suppose to be interdependent, but human are destroying the natural state, imposing man’s will onto the animals, which perish themselves eventually.

　　Ling: is so scary. All of the animals are eating human. Not only the beasts that we know, but also the docile ones are also sharing a part. If the world becomes like this, human will have nowhere to hide.

　　Hu: Human and animals are supposed to be equaled. But nowadays the consequences of the ubiquitous inequality of human framing animals’ ecological nature are everywhere, which is pathetic and hateful.

　　Ling: I feel like the previous and the present convey two notions. First of all, to violate the law of nature will bring consequences to human beings, which express the concern towards the human future. Secondly, it depicts an ideal world- a world that human and animals or even human and nature are in a total harmony.

　　Hu: Yes.

　　The aroma of roasted pumpkin was out, floating in every corner of the studio, exuding a sweet nostalgia. It was already more than nine in the morning, and this was our brunch, Hu Ming usually ate like this. She said she did not like having lunch at 12pm, if she accidentally ate more, she would fall asleep and could not paint any more.

　　Hu Ming once again entered into creating mode, I was watching at side while listing to A Bao’s Northern Shan Xi love songs.

　　Hu Ming concentrated on painting a cat, lots of her paintings have cats, and it was kind of a special mark of her. Her cat is very adorable, and dynamically different, but all have the same expression of understanding everything.

　　Several hours past, I was almost unable to sit still, so asked her; “Don’t you feel bored to paint so long?”

　　She smiled; “How come? I will go into another world once I start painting. There are so many novel ideas and endless pleasure to enjoy, how can I get bored? I can continuously paint for 9 hours even 13 hours. It is unconscious.

　　I said; “Hu Ming, you were born for painting.” She replied: “Very good. Other peers enjoy painting, but I put my life on it. People said I had masochistic tendency. I think it might be the training result of the slogan “Fear neither hardship nor death” when I was young. In fact, I also enjoy putting my life on painting, the new tern is called ‘challenge the limit’."

　　Around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the kingfisher was warbling in the garden. Hu Ming said; “It is on that big tree, it’s calling me everyday at 5 o’clock.” I didn’t see it because of the dense brunches, but I saw a kangaroo standing outside the fence. After bump into me, it unhurried to look around in the garden again. Hu Ming called off work early for me. She said; “Koala is coming soon, there is an elder koala here for many years. It comes out of the woods at this time everyday, wonders around the house, it’s not afraid of me touching it. Let’s go and have a look of it.”

　　In the evening, Bob was back. He pointed at the tablet on the wall-which they bought from Pan Jiayuan in Beijing-that was inscribed with “Ya Tian Xiu”, and asked me the meaning of it. It means “to greet the blessing from God”. But I interpreted in a manner of Kangaroo Valley; “to receive the happiness that nature gives us.” Bob was very pleased.

　　The Tenth Day 2012

　　Place: Kangaroo Valley

　　Hu Ming said; “I pretty much finished the scroll painting, would you like to see it?” Surely I would like to be the first to see it. It also used <87 Immortals> as the background, this time the scroll was even longer (159cmx1573cm). She had been talking about this idea several years ago, now it’s complete. Compared to , this one was even more magnificent. Hu Ming said; “The name is .” She was trying to put those large scaled painting in order in the studio. I offered my help, she said; “No need, you could not move it, this is labor work, I have to do it several times a day.”

　　Hu: These females under the masters’ pens, some of them are publicly acknowledged as masterpiece in the history, some of them are my own favorite, the artist may not be famous, but to me they are masters. Their appearances are neither in historical order nor the ranks of their fame, they are randomly positioned, mainly for the composition need.

　　The first one is Botticelli’s . I rubbed in elements from contemporary society-camouflages from wartime. War replaces the ideal of peace and love.

　　That woman with green cloth is from Jan Van Eyck’s . It is known as the first picture in the history of painting. On top of that, the fine detailed skills and the style of his characters are similar to Chinese meticulous detailed color painting. Thus, it is worth to be memorized.

　　I put the pregnant woman from Gustav Klimt’s painting beside her, childbearing is a breeding responsibility of women. No matter they are happy about it or not, she looks very happy, with an accidentally been fooled expression.

　　After that is Michelangelo’s Goodness of knowledge, has beauty、strength、wisdom in one. Just look how beautiful the muscle is at her back, I am so confident in painting young muscles.

　　I always like Mona Lisa, her secretive smile, looking at the transformation of human and society with sarcastic smile. She has been repetitively appeared in my works since I started painting. She’s from the same period as , the spiritual world that they represent is the same, calm and beautiful.

　　After Mona Lisa is teenage girl of D. D, Velazquez, the empirical costume from this period was very decadent, slyly stunning and morbid. My main point is to present her cloth. Apart from the body curves, clothes play a very important role. Clothes represent class and the change of hierarchy at times, whether covering the body, for convenience or different decoration, they all have their own different meanings.

　　I put two of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe on the pennant of the fairies. Marilyn Monroe is my favorite beauty, the eternal temptation. Warhol’s Monroe is a revolution because it has told the public that art is not only from easels, but can also be produced from machines.

　　It supposed to be lotus in the hand of the fairy behind, but I changed it into the mushroom cloud of the atomic boom. Modern people focus more on conquest nowadays, they advocate military force, and have their hopes on the most advanced weapons. Look, the fairy is a mass of bruised.

　　The woman in red lying in the front is the representative work of the Raphaelite Frederie Leighton, lazy estheticism. Some critics believe his paintings are greasy and kitsch. There is no right or wrong in artistic standards, only like or dislike.

　　On the top, is the woman from Richard Lindner’s works with leather gloves and garter. He had never been professionally trained, his mother made underclothes for people, so he grew up peeking at female models. I admire the weird and wild character of his female characters, full and with tension.

　　I don’t really like the female body of Rubens, so I only selected one female portrait.

　　The cello player is from Domenichino, which plays the role of the prelude of the band at the back.

　　The woman in blue dress comes from the pre-Raphaelite Rossetti. All of the faces he painted were the same, just like him, especially the mouth, which is particularly sexy.

　　The one lying on the ground is the representative masterpieces from the Cubism Fauvism artist, Femand Leger. The original book in the hand has been changed into ipad.

　　The one with the stretching arms is the Goddess from David, which has also been put on a pair of headphones.

　　The one wearing red shawl is from the work of Modigliani.

　　The woman that plays piano is from Anne-Louis Girodet. She has so many works in her life. I love the pattern of her cloths, and also the piano. Her gesture just echoes with the immortal kabuki. The characters in immortal kabuki are the center and also the climax of this whole scroll, the design of the line drawing is so beautiful.

　　Beside it’s the woman in green dress from the painting of Lempicka. I chose her because the early female body shape in my works was hugely influenced by her.

　　Apart from the one of green dress, the six people in the group are all laborers. The woman in red kneeling on the ground is from Courbet’s , her kneeling position is pure, simple and also sexy.

　　Fee Ann Marytemperature’s <Russian Country Girl Vera><Back from the Market> of Chardin.

　　Jules Bastien Lepage’s <Haystacks>.<Family>, from Schiele.

　　Bouguerean’s <Girl that Breaks the Water Jar>

　　Then it comes to the noble lady on the swings. Artist Fragonard belongs to classic Rococo, most of his paintings are the depictions of the sexual desire of those nobles, in gaudy style.

　　Rene Magritte’s paintings are extremely secretive. He is one of the most admired masters of mine. His imagination is elusive.

　　The white dressed woman who is making the dough is the character from the Mexican artist Rivera. He is the national treasure of Mexico, his paintings have been exhibited in the biggest Mexican museum. I actually don’t like his style, but because my time is so limited and his painting is easy to copy.

　　That dismembered woman is Dali’s. For this kind of paintings, I only copied once, very easy.

　　The girl that sits underneath is IIya Yafimovich Repin’s painting of his own daughter. Repin’s work is difficult to copy. Copying this painting revealed my deficient skills in oil painting.

　　Women in Ingres’s paintings are the most virtue and serene ones, even the back of a bathing woman is still elegant and dignified. I was stunned when I saw this perfect naked back.

　　That chubby woman is from Lucian Freud. He is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the psychiatric expert. His paintings are usually too real to face directly. I painted a bunch of capsules on the body of the woman to accusation- obesity and the overuse of antibiotics is a century disease.

　　The woman in white is from Degas’s impressionist work.

　　The woman with a child on her shoulder is also Michelangelo’s work, very strong and sturdy. I painted because I like it.

　　I only sketched the outlines of Rapheal’s Virgin Mary and Christ, and put @ in the position of his heart to manifest how much modern people’s spiritual life is dependent on internet.

　　Max Ernst’s works are extremely crazy, and I need that red.

　　To copy Gauguin is to save time.

　　The last one is Picasso’s , the original has two women with flying long hair. I cut one’s hair short to manifest homosexuality, which is also the contemporary phenomenon. The two running in the opposite directions represents the sense of rebellion.

　　And the last “immortal” is me. Colored glasses and five-pointed star is my symbol.

　　Ling: I feel like I’ve been going through the world art history after listening to you. I find another characteristic of this scroll, all of the Western women have been painted in half oil painting and half traditional Chinese realistic painting.

　　Hu: I purposely did it. Chinese painting believes line drawing represents the perfect shape. At first, I tried to do Mona Lisa with traditional line drawing, but no one could recognize her. It seems like it is not just the outline that people are familiar with, but the color sketch is also very important. So I found a neutral way to do it by combining the skills of oil paintings and line drawings together. To extract lines out of masters’ oil paintings is very interesting.

　　Ling: The most wonderful thing is, in this way, the characters from Western oil paintings are blended among the immortals, therefore, becoming unobtrusive in the scroll.

　　Hu: That is correct. I did the best to apply all my line drawing skill. It can be considered as the attempt to combine Chinese and West.

　　Ling: This painting is really gorgeous and powerful. The integration of Chinese and Western figures; the integration of line drawings and oil paintings; which makes the image coherent, and this is the so called qi. The composition of both the Western figures and Chinese immortals is fit and appropriate, this is shi. Such a great painting!

　　Even till now, I still have the same conclusion: Hu Ming was born for painting. Her family background, her personality, her experience and her living environment, all of these are the preparations for her to paint.