Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

(Please click the image to enlarge) I just posted a new oil portrait, here is the story behind: Sunday, July 17, 2011, I went to Los Altos farmers market. A beautiful blues voice and music attracted my attention. I walked close by and saw a young girl playing saxophone, and an older guy singing... I heard the drummer playing amazingly too, but could not see anyone there from the crowd. Unfortunately, it was the last song, and the singer announced that the drummer was 4 years old. It was hard to believe, but it was true. It was around noon. I saw this little shy mixed boy was holding his mother's hand, standing under the Californian strong sun shining down on his head, while his mother was busy answering questions from other people. I tried very hard to capture the boy's face, and imagined the bright future ahead of him... Sorry I didn't get their band's name, I am sure there are a lot of other people who know:-)! Please view a better image at: http://f

What a great inspiration! Unknown in advance, I had seen the Pacific Voyagers and seven boats at Monterey Bay, California! August 13, 2011, late afternoon sun shone on the weekend Monterey beach. I saw some unusual boats, actually ancient looking boats, mostly like the boats made by Maori people from New Zealand, anchored to the beach in the bay. I was so attracted by the beauty of those boats, and a couple of handsome sailors paddling people back and forth from the beach to the boats. I didn't want to miss this good opportunity, and started shooting... A local lady chatted with me that these were Pacific Voyagers - a group of Pacific Islanders from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, and Tonga. They started in April of this year, passing the Marquesas, and Hawaii on their journey. Also she said that I missed seeing the landing, which was a traditional American Indian ceremony for welcom

I am a right-handed person. Especially writing in Chinese, parents have to train us from a very young age, and make sure we all use our right hands correctly. Painting itself is an art, there is no right or wrong answer for any result, just like every single individual, we all have our own characters. Being a visual artist, how we can well present our artistic style takes a lifetime to find out. Though as time passes styles change as well. I don't like to get stuck with the same style and same color tone, that would be too boring for me. Change is an excitement in life, of course it could be painful sometimes. But I enjoy doing something different all the time, that is my style I believe. I don't think I could run out of ideas, maybe that is my creative "problem" :-). So, I painted these works with my left hand. I was so frustrated holding my brush, as an adult starting to train my brain to do something really odd. I remember that my brush jumped out of my lef