Bernadette’s diary
recent digital pubblication
on Apple Book
for free reading
under
author: LEE-PISAPIA Kam Fu Bernadette
The shadows of the fan is an album
in order to recall my first personal show titled ‘ Chinese Fan and seashells’, shown at Carlton Studios in Edinburgh In 1982
it was a show of abstract paintings based on the spiritual metaphor of the triangles, of the trinity, etc., manifested often as possible objects in the material world, that of Chinese Fans and Seashells
it was a transitional period
I was doing my first semester Postgraduate with Professor Cummings at Edinburgh
College of Art
He left the College right after that semester
I was awarded a scholarship to travel to Florence for a month
to prepare myself to eventually settle in this city after my graduation
Professor Cummings warned me before leaving me with my tutors
’ No matter what they say to you, just think of the opposite and you will be on the right track’,
my tutors were once his students and he knew what I would eventually encounter
as a matter of fact, I was discouraged to listen to the advice that Professor Cummings prepared for me,
Look at Chinese Calligraphy and Colour, your strength and identity
my tutor said,
You are making something so impossible, why bother?
He meant the difficulties I had whenever I stopped to mix the necessary colours while being faithful to the Chi , a necessity for any Spiritual brush work to fully manifest itself as demanded by Chinese Calligraphic traditions
I insisted to think of the opposite, following the advice of Professor Cummings
It took years before I realised the final solution - which to my surprise, lies in watercolour as a medium
In the summer of 2017, I bought a Sketch book in Hong Kong embedded with fan shaped field of boundaries
ready to be filled with images
I filled them with spontaneous moments of certain Hong Kong films of the sixties
and records of diaries in visual terms: an old tea pot, a new tea pot, a catalogue of an exhibition, portraits of Antonio, my Florentine refuge, etc
they are not abstracted images like my first personal show
they are concrete happenings of my intimate ways of seeing
The Chinese brushworks, not the abstract pattern, are seen in subtle ways
sometimes the colours are fresh
sometimes they are not
it happened only because I was finishing certain colours
I did not go and purchase the colours in order to make a fresher image
after all these years of painting
I am no longer attached to what others consider being good or bad as the Quality to be seeked upon
nothing is important anymore
mistakes are fully welcome
beyond the boundaries is great
you see the fan
you don’t
an old way is also welcome
a new way is seen in the subtle acceptance of what others consider as mistakes, such as muddiness of colours
we live every moment of our lives with the same breath
whether we mix muddy colours or fresh colours
we need to embrace the impossible and make possible happen
think of the opposite when you cannot go anywhere
A lesson about Life
such was the lecture generously given to me by Professor Cummings
before he went on retirement
Thank you Professor Cummings
Happy Chinese New Year of the Dog- an invitation of no spiritual boundaries