Zhao Zaizhao
China, 1939-
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Zaizhao Zhao was born in 1939 in Jinshazhou, Guangzhou. He is proficient in imitating art in a realistic and meticulous manner. He now lives in Sian leprosy village in Dongguan, Guangdong. --- Personal Experience: “I Have a Dream” Zaizhao Zhao moved to Sian leprosy village in Dongguan in 1975 when he was 36 years old. Zhao liked painting when he was young. However, because he didn’t have the opportunity to receive a formal education in arts when he was young, most of his painting skills were self-taught. He said that since he cannot pay study fees for an art teacher, he is unfamiliar with many professional techniques and skills. He can only rely on his own solutions to artistic challenges through painting. After years of practice, Zhao has developed his own technique of painting- when imitating other’s works, he draws grid patterns on the paper first to make sure a right proportion. He found that even the art he imitates looks like a new original in certain areas, but that these newly created areas cannot become the whole image due to proportion problems. Hence he has commenced researching painting techniques, and constantly practices them. Latticing is a complex technique of painting, but Zhao keeps an eye on all the details of painting in order to create a masterpiece. Zhao says that he will think of nothing else when painting, not his struggles with his health, his income or any other issues. He created a lot of paintings before he came to the leprosy village as he can usually continue working on a painting throughout a whole day without any rest, and can finish the work quickly. He would like to donate his paintings if someone would wish to have them. However, he gave up painting after he came to the leprosy village for many years, and only started painting again last year. Unfortunately he hasn’t found anyone who likes his paintings in the leprosy village so he is painting less. However, the university students and Peng Haiti –another painting lover liked his art, gave him lots of encouragement so he has started painting again. Now when he sees great paintings, he collects copies of them for imitation and appreciation. He also gives a large number of his paintings to university students. Some of the paintings have even been reserved before being finished. Zhao was diagnosed with leprosy after completing primary school. The following year, he continued to take medicine from local community family doctors. He is cured and does not have physical challenges but, nevertheless, his neighbours would not approach him after learning he had had leprosy, so he had to stay at home. When he was isolated at home for years, he continued his self-learning and practice skills - carpentry, bamboo weaving, brick-layer and painting. Some skills are even better than professionals. The community knows him as someone who has had leprosy but is self-sufficient through self-learning. The neighbours still want him to go back home, even after he settled in leprosy village. His drawing improvement highly depends on the self-learning and “can do” attitude, and also originates from the energy of heart. He said that when he was studying at primary school, a teacher used to arrange an essay whose title was “I Have a Dream”. He wrote about becoming an artist. At that time, his favourite class was art as he could finish his homework and associate with other classmates who didn’t like painting. He can finish six paintings in 40 minutes. He also used to be the champion of the community sketch competition. He remembers that the painting contest was the gate of school. Zhao has a magnificent desire of knowledge but regrets not completing his education. He thinks that not being a real artist may be a lost chance to realize his dream. For him, the real artist should have a creative masterpiece of his own. The disease had him miss the opportunity to be a real artist in his best days. Tough as his life is, he never forgot his dream. Zhao kept pursuing art through his whole life. --- Source: HANDA Rehabilitation and Welfare Association, The Beauty of the Spirit, (Guangzhou, 2014) |
