Fei Tian Instructor Wins Gold For Art Work

Artist Michelle Chen honored for depicting deeply-held values

An art instructor at Feitian Academy for the past two years, Ms. Chen recently won the gold medal in NTDTV’s 2009 Chinese International Figure Painting Competition.

Ms Chen has immersed herself in art since the age of ten when she studied calligraphy from Chinese masters in her province. She then painted landscapes in the style of Chinese brush painting (known as “Sumi” art) which uses colored ink on rice paper. She now focuses exclusively on oil painting.

Her oil on canvas, “Shock” depicts a Falun Gong practitioner losing her shackles and rising high in her prison cell as guards look on, shocked and terrified. 

She says she is inspired by stories of faith. “I was shocked very moved when I read a true story about an elderly lady who was tortured in China because she wouldn’t give up her spiritual beliefs. She refused to quit the cultivation practice of Falun Dafa while in prison. She was shackled but persisted in the meditation exercise of Falun Dafa.

Ms Chen notes that the elderly lady was suddenly freed from shackles. Shocked and scared, her torturers kowtowed to her and begged her to forgive them. The next day they released her so she could return to her home. 

She usually does some preliminary sketches to arrange the composition, then looks for a model who can pose for the composition. She also uses photographs as a reference.

The painting was originally accepted into the Truth Compassion Tolerance International Art Exhibit that has toured around the world. When submissions were being accepted for the 2009 Chinese International Figure Painting Competition, she entered the painting.
There are two parts to the composition—a triangle within a larger triangle. Everything revolves around the Falun Gong practitioner in the center. She is filled with light and emanates light outwardly. The larger triangle brings in the figures of the astonished guards. Each one has a different way of expressing what he sees: one is terrified, another is shocked, one appears filled with remorse as he covers his face, another kowtows in respect, and another is blinded by the unearthly light.

There is a sharp contrast between the central figures and her torturers, also a contrast with light and darkness, compassion and evil, quiet and unrest.

Her favorite subjects are God, Buddha, sages, and people of noble quality, such as Falun Gong practitioners who face evil and never relinquish their beliefs.

She received a commission from CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands) Museum to do an historical work. Also, many people often ask her to paint portraits of their family.

Besides her award-winning oil paintings, Ms. Chen works in watercolor and uses the technique of Chinese brush painting for landscapes. She also does calligraphy and some pottery.