Interviews with Artists Featured in the “Uncompromising Courage” Art Exhibit: Fan Hong - Part II

Fan Hong’s "Faith Unchained" traditional Chinese painting 53 in x 33 in (2004)

Reporter: Zhu Qingming, a reporter for Zhengjian.org/PureInsight.org
Fan: Ms. Fan Hong, the artist

Fan: Another piece of art is “Faith Unchained.” My deepest memory is about my prison days in China. I was locked up in a cage for a month, no clothes to wear, nothing to eat or drink except for what we were force fed, and I was beaten. During ym detention in prison, not even the most basic things needed for survival were available. I relied completely on strong faith to get through this period. When I was meditating inside the cage during that time, wonderful things were revealed to me. They were all real things in other dimensions. In this painting, I have drawn a very big angel bringing brightness, also Falun's, in the painting not only giving you the energy, but also healing your bodily wounds. Through the facial expression and body posture of this female practitioner, I expressed that the brightness and benevolence in our hearts far exceeds our suffering from the brutal persecution. In the painting, the dark cruelty and the bright benevolence form a contrast. God is omnipresent. Righteous thoughts can move heaven and earth. God can energise you and give you energy. This is my personal experience, which enabled me to draw it. In that lawless totally dark jail at that time, I had only one wish: One day, if I could live through this, I would paint these real experiences.

Reporter: In these two paintings, there are western little angels and God, but both are traditional Chinese paintings. Why did you use this approach? Is it because what you saw at that time were all western angels?

Fan: When some people sit in meditation what they see is the eastern heavens, the Buddha realms, and eastern celestial beings. What I saw were all western God images. A person’s body may be oriental, but his primordial spirit may come from the western heaven. This is easily accepted in the cultivation world. I painted what I saw. During the Renaissance, all artists believed in God. They could paint Jesus and Heaven so vividly because they were all reverent Christians. When they painted with pure hearts, using their techniques to express them, God would help them. Many of them actually saw the scenes themselves; God then gave them the wisdom to express what they saw. What enabled them to create such brilliant artwork? It was because they revered God, so God then gave them the wisdom to create. It is my wish to paint what is most beneficial to mankind and most meaningful to human morals.

Reporter: How do you think one can be a good artist and create good artwork?

Fan: That’s a very broad subject. To be a good artist requires solid basic painting skills. This usually takes more ten years or several decades of effort. With very deep attainments and basic skills, one also needs very good self-cultivation, which includes the understanding of the universe and the cultural milieu. This is a person's comprehensive self-cultivation. Many people have said: "A painting is like the artist himself." That means a painting reveals an artist’s state of mind, his thoughts, his interests, his morality. When an artist is very solid in basic skills, extremely erudite, a cultivated and moral person, God will grant such a person the ability to create great artwork. Master artists in the Renaissance time and great Chinese artists often had great moral integrity and personality. This is also a road that I follow in my pursuit of art. I feel I am still a student in the artistic domain.

Reporter: The style of the two paintings is very similar, very refreshing and gracious. Please discuss the composition in detail.

Fan: A painting first requires inspiration, then composition. I created these two paintings very quickly. Once I decided to paint, it took only a few minutes before the whole picture was there. I outlined it as if it were displayed there for me to see. Not many changes were needed after the first draft. I felt confident at that time and I knew it would be good. When there is a good topic that one wants very much to paint, it comes out quickly, and this kind of composition is usually very good and usually liked by others.

As I have discussed before, the painting “Unmovable” used a "V" shape composition. What I would like to add is about the tree in the painting; it is a living being. After the suppression, there was not a single day that I did not feel the pressure from the outside environment in those 18 months in China. The trees, grass, all carried pressure and the overwhelming suppression was like a mountain pressing down on my head. At that time, only my understanding and firm belief in “truthfulness-compassion-forbearance" could overcome all of that, best all of that. Although I have said a lot, yet I feet unable to completely express the feelings I had at that time. When I was painting, I suffered tremendous mental pressure. When I had already been abroad for three years, I could not see my little girl as she was still in the mainland China because the government would not let her leave. I devoted my body and soul to painting. I painted with painstaking effort. Every stroke was painstaking and my entire body and soul were in the painting. While painting, I often recalled some heart-stirring stories from the days when I was in China, some details, some dialogues, the difficulties encountered... ... There were both tears and joy during painting. Painting took me back to a kind of memory world and I was painting my own heart, expressing my own sentiments. Putting it down in a painting for others to see is to share with others my thoughts and feelings.

"Faith Unchained" has a diagonal line composition. This painting is more like a portrait, without much of a background. There are only two subjects: one is the big angel and the other is the Falun Dafa practitioner. Their faces form a kind of echoing and the law wheels at the top and the lower left corner provide a balance for the composition. I used all my energy in the painting of the subjects’ eyes and their facial expressions. There are also hand gestures. The hands have feelings and the cloth folding lines also have feelings. I focused all my energy on the details of these two subjects’ appearances, in particular the Falun Dafa practitioner’s expression.

This painting was displayed in the exhibition and many viewers were moved by the two figures. Many western viewers liked it a lot and came to chat with me. I asked them: "Can you understand? An oriental and a western angel in the same painting." Almost every one of them said: "It is completely understandable, God belongs to everyone." Therefore, they are not surprised. They felt the beauty of these two beings moved them, and they could see what I wanted to say through the painting. They felt a kind of strength of goodness, a kind of energy. This painting does not have much of an environmental description, everything is focused on the expression and feelings of this Falun Dafa practitioner and on her innermost world. In this painting, a line of light and the surrounding darkness represented the environment of the outside world and in China that I wished to express.

Reporter: This is the first of your art pieces that you exhibited in the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" Art Exhibition. To look back, do you feel any insufficiency?

Fan: After I finished this painting, it was just kept at home. After looking at it for a few months, I thought there were better ways to paint. Art is without boundaries. When I look back on these paintings, especially the first one, I saw the lines were still drawn with the previous distorted technique. I have painted using the technique of distorting things, even abstract painting, for many years. There still is trace of it in my painting. In the process of painting, I continued to find and to know myself. I often found that techniques I used to think were great were actually wrong. It is because my understanding improved. Only then could I see the problems in my painting techniques. When my pursuit of technique surpasses the expressing the essence of the painting, it is wrong. While painting these two paintings, I tried very hard to remove the concept of appearing beautiful first. Appearing beautiful is not the most important thing. One should not pursue appearance for the sake of pursuing appearance, rather appearance is to serve the main theme, to obey the main theme. In seeking this kind of balance, I felt some adjustments were needed. Additionally, the appearance of a person should be even more exquisite. Because I had experience with using western fine brushwork to paint before, I put the western paint colours and details into the fine brushwork, including the feeling of the light, the feeling of brightness and exquisiteness, the feeling of rich colours. For instance, in the white wing and the clothes of the angel, I used the relationship between the light and colours in western painting to express my thought. This might be considered a breakthrough for me.

Reporter: Do you have any new painting ideas now?

Fan: I have some paintings that are still being revised and there are also some new ideas. I specially want to do a painting related to the unforgettable experiences of my daughter. There are many orphans in the Mainland China who lost their parents and could not attend school. Their parents were in prison for practising Falun Gong and some children were left destitute and homeless. I have this kind of personal experience; my daughter also suffered this kind of spiritual trauma. I want to put this in a painting. One day, when looking back at this painting, my daughter and I will not be crushed by the pressure, but will been removed from that predicament. That will be a kind of beauty, a kind of strength. It is this kind of strength that drives me to draw it. I am picturing a scene of a mother and a daughter under a heartrending suppression. I also remember the scene when the policeman snatched my daughter from my arms. At that time, they had put anaesthetic in my food making me unable to straighten my head and I had lost my hand strength. In this state, I helplessly watched them taking my daughter out of my arms and I heard my daughter crying.

China does not compare at all with the U.S. with respect to how the society treats women and children. People will be stirred and sympathetic when they realise what is happening in China. My experiences during this period were the most disturbing and the most poignant in my life. When I was painting these pictures, as I recalled past events, my thoughts became stronger and stronger. With regard to this experience with evil, I realised that we must defeat it using righteous strength. Artwork, music, writing, and other types of interchange with others are all helpful in using righteous strength to defeat evil.