冬天的公园

少年时涂涂画画，年幼无知，见少识乏，对老祖宗的国画、书法兴趣不大。听别人评得天花乱坠，自己一点也摸不着北。

读书后学理不怎么画了，倒还很是牵挂。这些年在国外，无论走到哪里，总要去博物馆、美术馆、画廊、拍卖行逛逛。国内的《美术》之类杂志也没断过订阅。看来看去，弥补了不少失去少年梦的遗憾，增长些见闻、也享受不少。

零零星星下来，从古到今，五花八门的东西倒是看了不少。最大的收获，是对老祖宗的东西越来越有感觉，越来越佩服。越看近代和现代的西方艺术，越意识到老祖宗们的美学观念是多么的现代、超前。从四大名僧，扬州八怪，到当代的黄宾虹，齐白石，用现在的词汇来说，真是一个“帅”字了得。虽然自己没有盲目的“媚中”情节，还是觉得，要搞现代，搞抽象，在大家通常认为传统古典的国画和书法里，实在有太多可学的东西。

画这幅，拿着鼠标“抽象”，当时看了黄宾虹的焦墨后不久，醉心于大师笔墨的不羁，自己也就有些放肆。

(MS Paint, Mouse, 1996)

In a Winter Park

You may need to be in a Chinese park first before you can figure out what this drawing has in it. Some hints: a few living creatures called human beings are approaching a half moon shaped gate inside the park.

Traditional Chinese parks are not merely a quite place to escape from the daily life or a playground to entertain kids. Many parks are preservation of historical sites or architecture wonders. A type of structure that can be found in almost every Chinese park is, of course, walls.

Chinese parks are often divided into different courts by those walls. The purpose, to me as a young kid then, was to make the park as confusing, or interesting, as possible. When you go from one court to another, you are supposed to be surprised or refreshed...

Then here is the first importance of walls coming in play. We cut holes, called windows, of all different shapes on these walls so that young girls could peak through them with their most attractive smiles, or you will get a glimpse of a blend of trees, flowers, and buildings through a planned frame – people want you to see things according to their views, and also to see it as a painting on a wall.

The second importance comes from the animal instinct of searching for beautify from within oneself. Interestingly enough, almost every Chinese girl I knew had a dozen photos of herself posing behind such windows - even an imperfect smile would look perfect when it is partly concealed and partly shown.