Artists from China Visit Forrest Dwellers
July 12, 2004

Eight master artisans from China visited six Chatham County artists in their rural studios to exchange ideas and learn about each other’s craft and culture. The tour was hosted by ChathamArts, the county arts council. The Chinese artists, who have been in Raleigh, North Carolina since April 1, are demonstrating their work at the Exploris museum through August 1, as part of a special exhibition from  the Science and Technology Museum of Beijing.

The Chinese master artists included Wang Min, a kitemaker who works in wood and cloth; Fu Jian, a paper maker; Li Hongsen, a calligrapher; Wu Chunyan, an embroiderer; Zou Liwen, a porcelain painter; Lang Zhili, who creates dough figurines; and two weavers, Sheng Derong and Yu Wenyu.

Chatham Arts President Efrain Ramirez and Executive Director Mary Simpson, escorted the visitors and their interpreter to six studios. First stop on the artists’ exchange tour was the Chatham Arts gallery in downtown Pittsboro, where the Chinese visitors viewed paintings, photography, jewelry, wood works, metal craft, and textile creations by a variety of local artists, and learned about the non-profit arts council. In the morning, the group visited three artists in northern Chatham: metal sculptor Tamera Mulanix, fabric artist Mary Lucas and potter Rusty Sieck. The visitors will have lunch in Fearrington Village at the home and studio of painter Joan Sommers, who specializes in oil, acrylic and sumi painting and has lived in Asia. After lunch the group met the “Forrest Dwellers”.The tour ended with a visit to Siglinda Scarpa, an internationally known clay artist from Italy, at her Goathouse Gallery and farm north of Pittsboro.

  Artists and ChathamArts Executive Director, Mary Simpson, are shown here with Forrest's Neandertoad -- A Stone Age Amphibian.

Forrest greatly enjoyed sharing ideas with his Chinese colleagues. This from the Chapel Hill Herald Sun: "No matter the artists, in China or the United States, they are very honest to their art," Zhou said. "They like nature so their work has some connection to nature." "What an incredible opportunity to meet artists from a different culture," said Greenslade, a Chatham County arts council board member in charge of public relations. "They were so fascinated in how things were made," he said. But Greenslade added that he did have some doubts as to whether the "whacky" names he gives his creatures could be translated. "But something doesn't need translating -- the love for art and the love for nature."