by Evan Yeh

I was very pleased to be able to participate in the entire OAS Life Workshop as a host, instructor and student. There were many highlights that I am excited to share with those of you who could not be there. In so many ways this workshop is an intimate representation of who we are as a family. It is us inviting people into our lives and sharing with them the joy that we experience in the jewels of Chinese culture.

What a First Day!

Each part of the workshop was special in its own way for me. I enjoyed watching my mother kick the event off with her calligraphy class. She gave a unique calligraphy class that was grounded in tradition but wonderfully flexible and accessible at the same time. Everyone produced wonderful writing and developed deeper understandings of the Chinese ideas of love, fortune, and harmony.

Lingchi prepares garlic chive potstickers as an appetizer

My mother’s endurance was on display as she took everyone to one of our favorite Chinese lunch spots and followed it up with a tour of our local Chinese market. I never realized how much I took for granted having access to such a large Chinese market. The diversity of produce and prepared foods is a special benefit of living in the area that we live.

We then went back to our house, had some wine and got a preview screening of my father’s brand new Dream Journey DVD. If one were to tell the story of my father’s life, I think that this past decade was his development into a filmmaker. My father has many gifts, but his storytelling is one that I appreciate deeply. His ability to weave Chinese history, stories, and legends into everything that he presents makes experiences with him one of a kind. You can see China with many different people and in many different ways, but my father’s China is a deliciously full, life-changing travel experience and other than going with him on the Dream Journey, the DVDs are the best ways to see China through his eyes.

Dream Journey 2010 DVD

The first of the Dream Journey DVDs to be filmed in High Definition Video, China’s exotic beauty and grace jump off the screen like never before.

The Dream Journey DVDs in general, and this one in particular, are wonderful sources of inspiration for a variety of subjects, especially landscapes.

Ning’s wonderful narration envelopes stunning footage of Yellow Mountain, Zhangjajie and much more.

Dream Journey 2010 DVD

DVDCT10: $25

Ning offers a toast as we enjoy a seven course feast courtesy of Lingchi

After the DVD screening, my mother began her cooking demonstration. My mother is the best person I have ever seen at preparing large amounts of delicious, healthy, food in miraculously short periods of time. Her food is soul gratifying, authentic Chinese food – fresh, tasty, and mindful of the waistline. After a full day of hosting and teaching, here she was explaining all the details of how she was preparing this seven course feast, serving appetizers, and answering questions with a smile. We sat down for an amazing feast accented with wine and delightful conversation. As the night was coming to a close, I considered how much we had experienced in just the first day. OAS Life indeed!

Day 2: African Violet with Ning

Although the first day was quite an endurance test for my mother, most of the participants found it perfectly paced and a wonderful way to ease into the event. Calligraphy is such a great way to develop confidence and a rhythm with your brush and paper. But Day 2 found us shifting gears and increasing the intensity. I’ve taken quite a few brush painting classes with my father, but this time I saw his unique qualities as an instructor more clearly that I ever have before. He brings such personal energy to the classroom. It is almost like we get to “plug-in” to this high-powered battery and allow the current to carry us to more ambitious results than we ever thought possible. Given how we have limited the seats available in the OAS Life Workshop, this is the most intimate setting and the most one-on-one attention that you could ever get from my father.

We spent the entire day working fairly advanced techniques in the context of the delightful African Violet and every single person regardless of their experience level produced admirable work. My father led us through the entire composition, stroke-by-stroke, and then reviewed each of our paintings personally making encouraging comments about what went well and showing us how to finish the work with composition enhancements and signature and seal. He even created Chinese names for the workshop participants that did not have them. This is a very special treat in and of itself and takes someone with my father’s unique background to do it well. It is a very special experience to see him choose a Chinese name for someone as he choose characters that have such deep meaning and poetic qualities. When people receive their name their faces light up.

NEW African Violet Lesson Booklet

After the OAS Workshop, Elyse, one of our newest OAS employees sat down with this African Violet Lesson Booklet and produced a very lovely painting.

After the OAS Workshop, Elyse, one of our newest OAS employees sat down with this African Violet Lesson Booklet and produced a very lovely painting.

Tiny jewels of purple amethyst set against distinctively patterned, dark green, leaves. Very accessible composition made possible for artists of any level with clear, step-by-step instructions.

African Violet Lesson Booklet

WS8001 $7.50

After a thrilling day with my father, my sister and I hosted a dinner at our family’s favorite Chinese restaurant. I like this restaurant very much because the decor is modern and the food is authentic, flavorful, and light. We shared wonderful conversation during dinner and got to know our fellow workshop participants better. The highlight of the meal was a white fish poached in a light sesame oil sauce with scallions.

Day 3: Bearded Iris with Ning

After an encouraging first day of spontaneous style brush painting with the African Violet, we tackled a more ambitious subject the second day: Bearded Iris! The bearded Iris is a stunning flower with giant, crown shaped petals. It is a good subject to develop your sense of abandon because both the flower and the leaves are quite large and dynamic. It is a noticeable change from the restrained daintiness of the African Violet.

Using our initial day of success as a confidence booster, my father constructed a lesson plan that had us finish two complete Iris painting in a single session. Everyone in the workshop showed that they were becoming more familiar with basic techniques like brush loading, moisture handling, and “lowering the boom” so the Iris paintings look quite wonderful and we were quite pleased to have two paintings to show for our efforts.

Day 4: Fineline with Lingchi and Rhythm/Chi Workshop

After a thrilling two days of spontaneous style brush painting, we all were ready for something with a more deliberate pace. Enter my mother with a fineline lesson on the Lotus. If you know my mother well, you would be quite surprise to see that she has taken a liking to the fineline (gong-bi or meticulous) style of painting. My mother has always been a “just do it person.” She is very good at “winging it” which is what makes her such a wonderful cook. She is adaptable and responds well to dynamic situations. So to learn that she had used fineline painting to develop more detail-orientation and deliberateness in her nature is quite surprising to me.

The lesson was quite well constructed. The group was small enough to allow everyone to work at their own pace and my mom did a great job and supported everyone even as the stage where each of us were started to stagger. This lotus composition is a very delightful single flower, with lovely color detail and great opportunities to layer colors to show off classic fineline techniques. The group progressed quite well through the line work stage and started to have lots of fun with the layering of colors. In the end, everyone finished the composition (quite unusual for a fineline class) and for me personally, this painting was probably my best of the workshop.

After dinner, we reconvened for a rhythm/chi workshop. I had a fun time leading this workshop and found it a very nice way to combine a number of things that I have spent the last 10 years studying. My whole family has had lots of fun over the last decade studying ballroom dancing. I, in particular, have studied it quite vigorously participating in national level competitions with very satisfying results. One thing that studying dance has show me is how connected all forms of movement really are. Whether it be dance, martial arts, or painting, it all starts with an awareness of your center and setting intentions from your core and move your energy through space. If you develop aptitude in one of these disciplines, it translates very well into the others. That is mostly what we worked on in the workshop. We focused on feeling and connecting to our centers through breathing, then played some music and did some simple movements as a group feeling both the rhythm and the flow of the music. When my father paints in his studio, he is always playing music that he loves. He connects to the feeling of joy that the music swells up inside of him and then channels it through his brush and onto the paper. Towards the end of the workshop we were able to practice how the concepts we were learning would translate into painting.

Day 5: Mounting Workshop with Ja-Shin

One of the most satisfying experiences for the rest of our family is to see my sister shine. She has always been the most supportive member of our family and seeing her giving the mounting workshop reminded me of when my mother, father and I used to delight in her when she was a baby. She was the cutest baby and all three of us would gather around and gawk at her while she made her cute noises, did her funny dances, smiled and clapped her hands. That being said, now she is a full-grown, articulate, intelligent woman, a stellar business manager, a homeowner, engaged to be married and one of the most critical reasons for OAS’ current and future success.

My sister patiently demonstrated the Chinese wet mounting process. This process is quite remarkable, because, when done properly, it returns a painting colors back to their full glory. Everyone who has done Chinese Brush Painting is very familiar with the fact that when the colors are wet, they have stunning vibrancy and beautiful variation within each single stroke. As the colors dry, they begin to fade. When a painting is wet-mounted, the colors come rushing back and are even more brilliant than when they were first applied. It can be stressful to wet-mount your paintings, so it is a special treat to have someone walk you through the process step-by-step and to be there to reassure you that things are going well. Our method of wet-mounting is sort of a family secret that we have crafted and tweaked over the years and like many things in our family harmonious blends Chinese tradition with Western technology to create optimum results.

After the satisfaction of seeing all the results of the weekend, wet mounted and drying on boards around the room, we were given free time and free reign over the DVD library of OAS. OAS has an unprecedented selection of instructional DVD titles. At last count there were over 100 hundred different titles and having the ability to screen as many as we wanted in the remaining time was quite exciting. We also were able to take the time to reflect on a week full of new experiences, wonderful fellowship, and dramatic artistic and personal growth.

For me personally, the first OAS Life workshop was all that I imagined it would be and more. Even though it was a large amount of work for our entire family, we felt very good seeing all the participants taking in and enjoying the experience. I felt very satisfied and inspired by it all and am looking forward to doing it again in January! See you all then!

In my last article, I shared my personal evolution from consumer to creator. I began my journey as a consumer looking for the latest piece of clothing or gadget I could buy and eventually became a creator, searching within myself to find ideas or truths that I want to creatively express. When I look back on my most satisfying creative experiences, one common thread exists – collaboration. While I cannot deny the satisfaction I feel when creating something completely on my own, it doesn’t compare to the exhilaration of effectively partnering with others to create something greater that the sum of its parts.

Many Musicians, But One Band

I have spent the better part of my life playing in bands. Bands are a fantastic demonstration of the benefits of creative collaboration. Some of the greatest rock bands in history like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and U2 are made of musicians who are not exceptionally talented as individuals. Yet, somehow this group of average guys gets together and their unique collection of complementary strengths mixes in just the right way and POW! Guys who previously could get no “Satisfaction” begin to “Twist and Shout.”

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