Ink Painter 水墨画家
2018
30cms (W) x 24cms (H)
Oil on Panel
This painting is of a friend of mine who left her stable job in a big corporate to become a tattoo artist. She draws her own designs and each one is unique for each customer. The arm she is tattooing is also her own arm and the design is one she designed.
This is a painting about something that is slightly countercultural (tattooing) which seems to be growing as a form of expression or rebellion which has an interesting role to play in a culture where acceptance or approval from elders, superiors, parents etc. has such a big influence. Her decision to leave a reputable position to set out on her own as an artist is really brave and I'm confident it's something that the 90s and 00s generation in China will be more confident to do. In the 3 years in Shanghai before I painted this I do think I noticed more and more people with prominently displayed tattoos, and noticed a lot more tattoo parlours opening up around the city.
这幅画是我的一个朋友，她从一家大公司辞去稳定的工作成为纹身艺术家。 她自己设计纹身，每一个都是给顾客唯一定制的。 图中正在纹的手臂正是她自己的手臂，图案是她设计的。
这幅画是关于轻微的反文化——纹身。纹身似乎越来越成为一种表达或叛逆的形式，在一种长辈，上级，父母的接受或认可起重要作用的文化里发挥着有趣的作用。她决定离开一个有名望的公司去创业做艺术家，做自己的艺术，这是非常勇敢的决定，我相信，会有越来越多的中国90后和00后这么做。在我画这幅画之前，在上海大概三年，我确实注意到越来越多的人有纹身，在明显的位置，也发现上海开了越来越多的纹身店。