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The Dana Gallery shows the
coolest vacation slide show ever
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By: Skylar Browning
Posted: 04/05/2007
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| Zhiwei
Tu, president of the Oil Painters of America and a legendary Chinese
artist, above, escorted Dudley Dana, Candace Crosby and a group of
painters throughout his native country last year. More than 50 plein
air paintings created throughout the trip, usually in front of crowds
like the one below, will be on display with Dudley's photography and
Candace's writings at The Dana Gallery starting Friday, April 6. |
Dudley Dana and his wife, Candace Crosby, knew this trip was going to
be different. They knew because they were going to China for three
weeks and that's a pretty huge deal by itself, and they knew because
they were going along with a group of six other renowned artists as the
guests of Zhiwei Tu, president of the Oil Painters of America and a
legend in his native country.
"The night before we left I actually turned to Candace and said, 'Let's
just go Havre and hang out,'" recalls Dudley of the pre-trip
intimidation. "I was serious, too."
Dudley and Candace knew this wasn't going to be a normal vacation, but
even with that understanding going in, things got weird fast. And weird
in a good way. Candace calls it the "We're not in Kansas anymore"
sequence: A 16-hour flight from Missoula to Minneapolis to Chicago to
Hong Kong led to a two-hour train ride to the city of Guangzhou and
lunch at a McDonald's where three waiters took the group of artists'
orders at a cloth-draped table. Then the documentary film crew arrived.
Then the police escort. Then the artists, the film crew and Zhiwei—his
presence being the main reason for all the fuss; except at McDonald's,
where the formality is normal -- hopped on a bus and followed the
police escort for two-and-a-half hours to a hotel where more than 25
hotel staff, dignitaries and personal translators greeted them in the
courtyard with bouquets of flowers and a welcome banner. As if that
wasn't enough of a whirlwind, the artists were told they had 10 minutes
to get ready before commencement of the evening's formal banquet, which
was being held in their honor.
"It was like that pretty much the whole three weeks," says Dudley.
"People just kept coming out of the woodwork. At one point there was a
fashion photographer who followed Zhiwei for a few days…It was like
that all the time, like he was a rock star. It was bizarre to be
around."
Havre it wasn't, and things hardly slowed down from there. Every day,
Zhiwei, whom Dudley and Candace first met when the Dana Gallery hosted
the national juried OPA show last summer, ushered his American guests
across the countryside, from remote villages to small cities; they even
stopped at the Shiaoguan City Museum where a wing bearing Zhiwei's name
opened last year. Every morning, Dudley says, someone would board the
group's bus and announce, "The plan for the day has changed." It got to
the point, Dudley says, that he wanted to learn how to say the phrase
in Chinese.
"It became part of the trip, just adding to the mystery," says Candace.
"Everything was a discovery."
In fact, that's what turned the already promising trek into such a
memorable adventure. The best vacations are typically ones when
itineraries become irrelevant, chance reigns and good fortune prevails.
And Dudley and Candace experienced that in abundance.
Even better, they're ready to share the experience in what amounts to
one of the coolest vacation slide shows ever. Before leaving, Dudley
had hoped to have the seven artists show their finished paintings at
his gallery, but he wanted to get a sense of the work before making any
commitments. Early on it became apparent the show would be a major
score. While the daily schedule may have been constantly changing, it
was rarely altered in a way that prevented the artists from completing
a blistering two paintings per day. The plein air works -- meaning
paintings created on-site, outdoors and, due to Zhiwei's popularity,
usually in front of massive crowds -- weren't just plentiful, but
gorgeous. On First Friday, the Dana Gallery features more than 50
examples. Six artists from the trip will also be in attendance,
including Zhiwei.
In addition to exploring the country to create their own work, the
artists traveled to five universities where students study Zhiwei's
techniques. This presented the opportunity for Dudley to discover new
talent previously unseen in the United States. He was particularly
drawn to the work of Tu Gang, an architect and aspiring oil painter
whose style features thick brush strokes, vibrant colors and abstract
landscapes. Dudley purchased four of Tu's smaller works to bring back
from the trip, and has since received four larger canvases from the
artist, all of which will also be on display for the April show.
From talking with Dudley and Candace, it's clear their trip to China
turned out to be much more than the seed of an exceptional art show. As
the group's only two non-painters -- Dudley is an
award-winning photographer, Candace an accomplished writer -- they were
free to explore the villages and speak with the locals while the others
painted. Since the two returned in mid-November, Dudley has spent
numerous evenings editing and arranging thousands of shots from the
trip, many of which will be on display in the gallery to complement the
exhibit. Candace has already published an article about their travels
in Art of the West magazine, and her writing will accompany Dudley's
photographs in the gallery.
"It was a life-changing experience," says Candace in between anecdotes
illustrating the culture, people and politics of a country often
unfairly stereotyped in America. "What we learned about everything over
there, I think, wasn't that it's perfect, but that China is a beautiful
place, with beautiful people so eager to learn more and more about
us... This show is a way for us to bring some of that back here."
East Meets West debuts at the Dana Gallery
during First Friday, April 6, with a reception beginning at 5 PM. On
Saturday, April 7, Zhiwei Tu, Scott Tallman Powers and Ken Cadwallader
will perform a painting demonstration in the gallery at 10 AM. Both
events are free. |
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