Press Release
Flushing, NY - October 27, 2000
For as long as they
can remember, Ying and Helen Lin, the admirable
couple, have been interested in and inspired by the
arts. Ying, a writer, learned the ancient Chinese art
of calligraphy writing while growing up in China.
Helen, a teacher, remembered watching her father paint
Chinese watercolors. Having grown up in a creative
environment, Ying and Helen have developed and refined
their own art forms and techniques over the years.
Together, they will launch their first joint art
exhibition for the community at the Taiwan Center in
Flushing.
This exhibition will showcase Ying's magnificent range
of skills and techniques in Chinese calligraphy. Over
the years, in his spare time, Ying studied and
practiced two styles of Chinese calligraphy. The
first style of calligraphy, also known as the oldest
style, is composed partly of pictographs. It consists
of large seal characters (1122-256 BC) and small seal
characters (221-207 BC). The second style of
calligraphy is known as clerical script, which dates
from 207 BC to 588 AD. These two styles of
calligraphy were crucial in the formation of modern
Chinese characters.
For Helen, this exhibition will reflect the many art
forms that she has developed over the years. Since
1986 Helen has devoted herself full-time to the arts.
Combining Eastern and Western styles with a mixture of
her own, Helen's artwork is modern and classical, yet
original. Helen's specialties include rice paper
tearing art, polymer clay pictures, paper crafts,
paper cutting art, and paper folding art. A technique
that she developed and perfected, Helen uses torn
strips of handmade rice paper dipped in diluted glue
to "paint" pictures. The results are landscape and
still-life paintings with textures and the soft look
of watercolors. Another technique that Helen has
perfected is the use of polymer clay to form
paintings. Instead of using the polymer clay to
simply make objects, Helen uses them to "piece
together" a painting, using the clay as her paintbrush
- a truly exceptional style.
Since the 1980s, Ying and Helen have demonstrated,
performed, and taught their art forms and techniques
throughout the New York/Tri-State area. Since
retiring as an editor of the Sing Tao Daily, a Chinese
newspaper, Ying concentrated most of his time on
refining his Chinese calligraphy skills. He has had
live shows in countless Chinese festivals and cultural
activities. Although Helen has recently retired from
being a Chinese school language teacher, she is still
active in the community with her arts and crafts. She
has demonstrated her art forms at many branches of the
Queens Borough Public Library System, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll
Garden, colleges and universities (including New York
University), the American Craft Museum, and the
Chinese-American Cultural Center of Flushing, etc.
Helen is also a member of the Asian American Women
Artists Alliance (AAWAA). She has had several of her
artwork displayed in group exhibitions - "A Prismatic
Mirror" (August 1999), "Eat Art 2" (November 1999),
"AAWAA 2000" (August 2000), and "Eat Art 3" (September
2000) - in SoHo, New York. In addition, she has had a
solo exhibition in the gallery of the Amerasia Bank in
Flushing, New York. Helen has published a book
entitled Helen Lin's Folk Arts and Crafts for all to
enjoy. For additional information on Ying and Helen
Lin's artwork and book, please visit their Web site at
http://www.artjoy.com/craft.html or call (718)
591-3352.
