StreetChicShop

2010-1-28

10:00 Am (Beijing Time)

SCS

Bill Dunlap

I lived in Japan for couple years. Those Asian masks gave me a very impressive feeling.

When I  lived in San Francisco, my place was near China town. Lion dance and dragon dance was a small part of my life.

Yes, those experiences gave me inspiration of my arts.

The funny thing is

when American see my arts about lion dance or dragons, they think them as devil or monsters.

You know, in America the image of animals are usually round, like mickey mouse.

But my painting show the faces and teeth. These are horrible to them.

The most interesting part is

kids like those arts. They think the faces are cute and funny. If you look into those arts carefully, you will find that.

And then their parents will change the attitude of those arts.

I always learn something new from my audience.

They are my teachers.

I think traditional art from all cultures is usually fascinating and beautiful.

It has usually developed over long periods of time and each traditional art has unique features that make it unlike anything else,

for example: Chinese watercolor, Eskimo sculpture, or Mexican weaving.

I am often inspired by what I see in traditional art: colors, forms, compositions.

All of these things go into my memory and, I believe, re-appear in my own work in unexpected ways.

Even though I love looking at traditional art, I believe that I could never work that way myself.

Traditional art usually has very exact rules about how it is made.

An artist must use a specific tool in a specific way to achieve a specific effect, and if the artist breaks one of these rules the artist is “wrong”.

When I make art, I must be completely free to experiment with any materials and any tools that I think of.

I often use tools in the “wrong” way when I am making my art.

In this way I hope to discover new things in the art-making process.

So even though I love looking at traditional art, I could never be a traditional artist.

Being an artist is a long long project, it needs a healthy body.

When I decide to be a full-time artist 6 years ago, I decided to quit smoking and beer.

Trust me, I am a crazy boy when I was young, just like the movie story.

Now, my lifestyle is like monk. And I am a vegetarian.

Doing exercise, painting, playing with my cats, having class in the university are the main content of my life.

Yes, I like my life now. Busy but interesting.

I am planing another project recently.

Faces.

Everybody’s face is unique. I will try to paint those remarkable faces, keep them on my paint fabrics.

Just like those masks I painted.

I have been to South Korea and Japan before, I wish I can go to China next time.

Can you tell me where is the vegetarian restaurant  in Beijing?

专访美国艺术家 Bill Dunlap：

在日本居住了3年，在旧金山唐人街附近住了近15年

期间，我接触了大量的亚洲传统艺术，如舞狮，日本传统面具等等

所有的灵感，爆发在我上一个艺术品系列中。（详见本网站首页）

在美国做展览时，发现了有些很有意思的现象。

这种龇牙咧嘴，色彩丰富的动物形象似乎让美国人感到害怕和恐惧，让他们联想到了西方文化中的恶魔或者怪物的形象。

似乎并不受欢迎。

美国人似乎更倾向于线条圆润的形象，比如米老鼠。

有一点我没有料到的是，很多孩子很喜欢我的作品。

那些在大人看起来恐怖的表情，对他们来说有些滑稽和可爱，当然丰富的色彩也是很有吸引力的。

于是他们的家长通过孩子的眼光逐渐开始欣赏这些作品。

我经常通过这些互动了解到很多新的东西，

也可以说成，观众让我看到了我作品的另一面，让我欣喜不已。

我热爱传统艺术，无论哪种文化里的艺术都让我着迷。

长期的文化沉淀，让这些传统艺术具有了独一无二的气质。

比如：中国的水墨画，爱斯基摩的雕塑，墨西哥的编织。

那些颜色，表现形式和结构通常能给我灵感。

所有这些元素融进了我的记忆，我相信我会用自己的方式将他们表现出来。

但这些传统艺术已经有它们自己的一套定式，我很欣赏，但恐怕我不会延续这些传统的形式。

我认为，一名艺术家需要利用一些特殊的方式和工具来达到一种独特的效果，带有自己风格的效果。

当我在创作一件作品时，我必须做到完全自由的随心表达。通常，我会用到一些非常手段来创作，这把创作的过程变得更有趣了。

事实上，做一个艺术家是一件长期的事情，会延续到我生命的最后，所以，需要一个健康的身体。

6年前，当我决定成文一个全职艺术家时，我开始了一种全新的生活方式。

戒烟，戒酒

相信我，我曾经过着一种很疯狂的生活，就像电影里的那些疯狂的艺术家那样。那时，我还是个大男孩。

现在，我的生活方式更接近于修行，我则类似于僧人。

我是素食主义者，每天锻炼、画画、进修生物学、和我家的猫玩是我生活的主要内容。

是的，我很享受现在的生活，忙碌但有趣。

最近一直在准备一个艺术项目

Faces

每个人的面部都是独特的，是生活的浓缩。

我会把那些让人印象深刻的面部留在我的画布上。

记录这个时代的那些人。

我去过南韩，日本，但还没到过中国。

希望有机会能来中国做个人展。

最后请问一下：

能告诉我北京哪里有素食馆吗？

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