미등록“신성이 아름다움을 인도해”...동·서양 미술 기법의 전통을 잇다

Our Bay Area innovator today is Lucy Cui. Lucy is an educator and artist with a focus on realism. When I see all sorts of different artists, a very traditional artist on the history or modern artists nowadays, they all have like their sense of beauty to guide them to use principles, to use the tools. For me, what is the beauty is like a divine drives the beauty, divine guides the beauty. After attending the most prestigious arts academy in China and one of the top art schools in the United States, Lucy has developed a method and appreciation to learn and teach art with the best of both systems. When I was a student, I really, really hate people saying just do it, you'll get it eventually. So when I teach my students, I would rather treat them like we are walking on the same path. It's just, I'm a little bit ahead of them. I maybe works a little bit few step ahead than them, but we are the same level. This is Bay Renovators and I'm your host, Steve Espresso. Lucy, welcome to our program. Thank you. Well, I wanna start with your education. So you attended pretty much the most prestigious art school in China, the Central Academy for Fine Art. And then one of the biggest academy in San Francisco, at least Academy of Art University. So you kind of learn both the Chinese style and the Western style art and painting and the teaching methods. Can you tell us a little bit about the differences between the China University and the US one? Yeah, when I had the art training in China, teacher will ask the students to do things first with some explanation, but most of the times it just let you do it first. You don't need to understand why it gonna help you, but just do it and then you will get it little by little. It's like you need to get enlightenment by yourself. Your teacher is give you assignment and they give you critique after assignment just like that. And when I got to the Academy of Art University here in San Francisco, it's like they provide the theories ahead, like explain things clearly to the student, at least to me, clearly to me for the students. And then we do the projects and I definitely understand which project is for what purpose so it can train me. And that is the difference I experienced from the Chinese education and the American's education. So now you're a teacher and you teach art at the San Francisco High School of the Arts. Please tell us a bit about your teaching philosophy as you teach. I've been teaching in San Francisco High School of the Arts like for almost five years, including at the very beginning the part-time job. So I didn't get my art education philosophy that early when I first come to school to teach, but because I was a student. So I know when I was a student, what kind of a teacher or what kind of things I want first. So in the school is like providing the very clear thing easier for the parents or students to see is the schools providing techniques like with the art, teaching them carousel, do oil painting and all those kinds of things, they're related with the techniques. But all of those techniques, actually they have a principle behind it, like the color theory thing, like those carousel stuff, so all of them. But what is behind the principle that support them? When I see all sorts of different artists like at a very traditional artist of on the history or modern artists nowadays, they all have like their sense of beauty to guide them to use the principles, to use the tools. And what is the beauty? I decide to choose, like I am a Falun Gong believer, practitioner. So I believe there's a divine being overwatching me at least. So for me, what is the beauty is like a divine drives the beauty, divine guides the beauty. Actually, I saw you in classroom and I noticed you're very close to the students. You're like friends with them. Tell us about the connection with students, how you teach them and how you have this relationship where you're like almost good friends with them. I think earlier I mentioned the difference between the Chinese art education and how I experienced in the AU art education. Like when I was a student, I really, really hate people saying, just do it. You'll get it eventually. So it's part of my personal rebalancing. So when I teach my students, I like to explain things clear to them first and then let them to have those physical trainings like how to draw, how to shade. And also I would rather treat them like we are walking on the same path. It just, I'm a little bit ahead of them, but maybe they're faster than me. They can reach my level really, really fast or some of the other things, but we are all at the same path. I maybe works a little bit few step ahead than them, but we are the same level. I just provide you some of the art stuffs, like those kind of things. If you like it, you just will take it easier or something. If you don't like it, I can figure out the other way, maybe using something else to be able to make sure you can get that principles. Maybe you hate that technique, but you still need to get that principles. So in the future, you can explore other things. Well, look at some of your paintings and can you tell us a bit about, let's start with this one right here. What was in your mind when you did this and what does it represent? Those two, they are like the master study after a artist called William Adolphe Berggru, a French guy. And I was doing those two is because I gave my students assignment to learn from the past masters, to learn from their techniques, to learn from their ideas, all those kinds of things. So every time when I let my students to do a on-class work, I would prefer to do one with them together. So when we encounter the same situations, when they lose their patient, because it needs pretty long time to focusing on drawing, I would understand like, oh, you see, I've been working this long. I actually lost my patient too. Let's figure out something else. Let's relax a little bit. So they can relate to you. Actually, I can relate with them. So I can, and they can see, oh, my teacher is suffering with me together. So something like that. It can make them feel a little bit better, sort of. So this one, I was doing this artwork with the middle schoolers. They are around the eighth grade at that time. I did make a little adjustment compared with the original piece, the photo that I can find online. I really like the bright or more saturated colors and make me feel happy. So I literally make the entire color saturation is more higher, even though still I'm study the Berggruen's art. Same thing happens with the angel over here. Like I was working that with a 12th grade student together. That's how it starts. But later, I really like how to complete a bigger piece because it can help me to, I mean, I wasn't graduated from the fine art major at all. I was graduated at the storyboarding, which is related with the entertainment art, like movies or animation, those kind of things. So I actually developed my fine art skills after I got work. But I think it's the second year or the third year during my work, my boss gave me the idea. So why not draw a Washington painting, big ones, historic painting? I'm thinking, that sounds interesting. Sure, why not? So I make a sketch draft for that big painting very fast because I do learn those art things as a storyboard artist, and I can make things pretty fast thinking about composition stuffs. And then I realize, okay, it looks good. Let's do a big oil painting. That's how I encounter some problems. So I figure out I need to, first, I need to study the human anatomy all over again so I can make up characters better. And then I need to practice how to make a big oil painting stuffs because I never did super huge oil painting before. Actually, before Qubit, I was trying to do a big oil painting. The theme is also part of the Greek mythology is the Pygmalion make a statue. And he was trying to make a really virtual, trying to make a female statue and trying to think about to bring those good virtual things on her because where the Pygmalion lives, the entire city is at a chaos situation. So he wants to portray a perfect lady that represents the beauty in his own mind. That's in ancient Greece. Ancient Greek mythology. And because the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, and touched by how he has these ideas and also he really make the statue look good. So he made the statue turn into a real human and Pygmalion married her. That's the story. The version of a story I like. There's a little bit different version of the stories because it's an old mythology. So I tried to make that, sort of failed. And then my students are trying to let my students to make a master copy, big ones. And though eventually we choose this one. So I did this with him together. Okay, so you mentioned about painting Washington and this is a big piece. This is work in progress, it seems. Please tell us first, where is this happening? What's the background on this painting? What's the time in history and the location? Or what's about to happen? This is Washington leading a war and they're going to cross the river, give a- The Delaware crossing. Yeah, they'll give a surprise attack to the British and that attack finally make America win the independent war. And this is before that independent war. Everybody is preparing to get that secret attack towards the British. And the whole idea, I get it from my boss, Dr. Sherry. At that time I was thinking, it's okay. I do want to make something interesting. And that sounds like an interesting topic, why not? So I have to do more research about independent war and about Washington. And I'm really happy there's a musical called Hamilton came out around that time. So that also helped me to understand about that time, how people think or when they fight the independent war, how they really think about. And I also need to do a lot of research about the clothing. And I didn't do that much of effort on the horse, which is really grateful towards the Academy of Art University's teaching. They have the animal drawing and my teacher really like the horse. A lot of animal drawing study, we start with a horse. The muscle, the bones, all those things, draw it again and again. Helps me a lot. Well, it looks like an amazing painting and it's still a work in progress. What feeling, what emotion do you think you expect the viewer to get from the painting? The research I did from what I understand independent war is a very, they win in a very, very hard and not unexpected situation, but they did encounter a lot of hardness or tribulations, those kinds of things. At that time, probably besides them, other people didn't really believe that they're going to succeed. And this is the moment like right before they're going to succeed. I add other characters, just preparing for the war and Washington is looking across the river. It's like he believes they can make a better future for them and for the people they protect. What would you say is your favorite work so far? And you told me before that it's always the next one. Yeah, because I mean, I think I am the artist I'm still developing. I do want to make something that can outlive me, but I also know with the art stuff, or at least with the fun art stuff, probably only five years old on that, I always want to get better and better for the next one. Yeah, so when you see which one is the best of all, I really have no idea. Thank you for that. Now, in the beginning, we talked a little about the differences between the Asian and Western arts. Please tell us more about your experience. You kind of work with both the main differences and how they kind of evolved in your mind. When I, earlier we mentioned about like the art education in China is like the teacher tell you to do this, do that, do this, do that. And then you're going to get it eventually. They may have some of the theories at that time, but most of the time it's just ask you to do it and then you can get it. I mean, for the most of the art education, there are good teachers and I met some of them and they would explain things very clearly. But most of the case, the majority is like do this and then you'll get it eventually. I think the part of reason like that is because that's how those teachers learn from. And they were taught like that too, because in China we have some traditional ideas for the old time, like respect the elders, which is good. But sometimes it might turn sorrow in a certain case. Like your elder may not be correct because they're human beings. Everybody make mistakes, right? But because you have to respect your elder and your elder probably also use that, you have to respect me. You have just do what I say. I mean, in a certain level, sure. But in some situation, we always need to take responsibility for our own action. So whatever we do, we need to be agree with it instead of just you do it and you just listen to that person. I mean, at least I don't like that. So for that situation, that's how some of the art teacher, that's how they learn. So when they teach the students, they actually, they say the same, just do what I say, you'll eventually get it. With the more quantity, eventually you'll get the quality. True, but with the quantity, you need to have the purpose to do the quantity so you can make your quality better. But apparently some of the teachers, they just listen parts of their teachers and they just keep going on like that. I mean, also Chinese art education is in a little bit awkward way. China used to have those really, really good traditional Chinese painting thing. Probably some people would think the Chinese painting, they are more focusing on the feelings other than accurate. But actually that's not the case. Some of the Chinese paintings, they can be very accurate. It's just they are getting, how to say, they are developing like they can have very accurate trees or animal drawings or those kinds of things. It's just the way it comes to the human because human is hard. And apparently Chinese people, they do not like to cut the corpse and understand the muscle or those kind of things. I mean, I know Da Vinci did that. But so, from the looking of it, Chinese paintings, they are not that correct on the human. But they do looking for some kind of the similarity, accuracy of the real artwork. But because at that time, China had a war situation. American didn't intrude China, but the Europeans or those other people, like the Japanese, they did that. They invade China a lot. And at that time, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, make people think, oh, our old stuff doesn't work anymore. All the Western stuff, they can help us. They can be better. That kind of thinking affect Chinese people for decades, definitely decades. So when it comes to the art at that time, there's a lot of people, they're thinking, oh, the traditional Chinese painting, it doesn't look like the real life thing at all. It's not that good. So they want to go study. We're going to learn advanced Western art techniques and then come back to the country to make my country better. There's a lot of people think like that. But one day at that time, when they go to the Western world, like the, I think that's, yeah, they went to the France. They went to the France, but at that time, it's around 18th, 19th centuries. France also have the revolution in thinking. They want to make things special or they still have a lot of people teaching the realisms, all those traditional techniques, but they are trying to look for some different things. They're trying to think about what is art besides make things to look exactly like how it looks, all those kinds of things. So the Chinese artists at that time, they learn from the France. They actually learn a lot of modern art thinking, like make it slightly abstract, but still have some of the realistic thinking inside, but they do have some of the theories they haven't fully understand, but they have to come back to China and start teaching others. And because that artist didn't fully understand everything yet at that time, it come back to China and they started teaching and these things gets a little bit straight. It's like a Chinese word game. A, one person tell another person something, another person tell another person, and eventually it ends up the sentence turned into a totally different thing. Haven't reached to a totally different thing yet, but when that artist come back to China, definitely have a lot of his own understanding, maybe right, maybe wrong, mixed together, and they start to teach in China. And after that, here comes the, China was friendly with the Russian and also get some of the Russian artists to teach them, but there's still some of the culture difference or language barrier or those kinds of things. And they make the Chinese art education turned into a, I mean, for me, I think it's pretty weird way. They do not like to make things like real life very much. Like they also, the big art test to make students to be able to choose which college they go, they have a certain training method. It's like, you have to draw it like this. You need to break your shape like this. Otherwise you cannot go to college. And a lot of students, they are aiming to go to the college with learning that kind of art style. It has some of the art principles in it, but also with a certain parts, it goes to a extreme way. And it's gonna kill creativity, right? Yes, and it's like they're telling you the rule. You want to be an art student, you have to be like this. Otherwise you can't. And when they got into college, they had that kind of training for too long. And sometimes in their college, their instructor is also learned from that kind of a training. They don't like really create a lot. So most of the things, they just copy other artists' ideas, copy something or just do something will make a lot of fortune, sort of like that. So things can get, for me, I think things is strange. Tell us who are some of your favorite painters, some of the people you looked up to or some that influenced you in your work over the years, be it probably Europe or China. The artists that definitely influenced my teaching theory or those kinds of things, they were my colleague. And either Mr. Cai or Miss Millie, that Miss Millie is still my colleague right now. And I was looking at their art philosophies or their artwork or their life attitude or those kinds of things. I can get to know something that helped me how to become a better teacher or those kinds of things. And by knowing them, I can get to know more about some other artists. Like for the teaching thing, there's a very helpful French guy named Charles Barque. He make a bunch of palettes for students to study. That can help a lot. But yeah, at the very beginning for the beginners to learn. And then after that is the William Adolphe Berggru. And I think at the San Francisco, the Legion of Honor have one or two of his paintings hanging on the wall for exhibition. I got a chance to went there. And the others is like a modern artist, still alive, called Li Yuan, that is a Taiwanese. Yeah, and he portrayed something sacred. Oh, sacred. Yeah, sacred and the warm feelings in it, something like that. And others, when I was a kid, I really like Da Vinci's sketches, like the notebook thing. Like I also like Da Vinci's philosophies, always exploring and I think about what is behind it, why it is look like this. When I remember one of his pages that I got, I got a chance to see is like, it feels like staging, stage design, light design, like where is the light source, hitting the subjects, how it gonna look like, those kind of things. I really like that kind of ideas of exploring, like always be curious, always to see why. And instead of just like, I told you so, you have to do this. I would like to ask why and what's the reason behind it. Now, you do other kind of, you do digital design and you said you were involved with doing things from movies. Tell us about some of the digital stuff or other things you're working on. I do make, I do like to create my own stories. It's like I invented my own universe, something like that. Okay, so I do like to always make imaginary ideas in my head or make comic books, but not that famous, something. But I do enjoy the progress of making it. And also I do some small illustrations. I have my own original characters and make some of the illustrations, like the characters reading or something and have a fun. Like it's very small drawings. I can finish that in 30 minutes. So one day I draw that, it just make me feel happy. I haven't really think about how to merchandise it, but anyway. Okay, Lucy, thank you so much for your time. Any concluding thoughts? Anything else you'd like to add? I do encourage everybody to be more curious and always be excited about the world. I mean, for me, I believe the world is like a virtual reality game, like designed by the God, play for me. Everything I met and everything I can get access to is like a gift to me. And be grateful with everyone that in your life, whether you hate them or you like them or whatever it is, because eventually they will make you become a better you, something like that. Lucy, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for keeping realism alive and getting it forward. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you for watching another episode of the Bay Area Innovators. If you think of someone who should be on our program, please send us an email at sfbayatepochtimes.com. Thank you for watching and we'll see you again next week.