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Bamboo Mountain Orchid Chrysanthemum And Plum Blossoms The Seasons Of Chinese Art

photo by Photo Provided Yinglei Zhang brings together classic Chinese painting with her own expression to create a blend of both worlds she calls home.

photo by Photo Provided Windy Night, Ink and color on paper. Zhang shared, “Bamboo is my favorite subject to paint. I love its beauty, strength, and flexibility. “

photo by Photo Provided Aroma from Hometown, Ink and color on paper. The Plum blossom is Chinese national flower, and Zhang loves its beauty, strong, and tough character.

Tuesday April 21, 2015

By Cookie Steponaitis

When you enter the home and studio of Middlebury resident and artist Yinglei Zhang you witness a blending of centuries of traditional Chinese Art and the natural beauty of Vermont. Zhang uses both to create her own representation of the natural world and two cultures. Zhang came to America for the first time in 1985 as a foreign student to study and again in 1997 when her family moved to Middlebury. Zhang was born in China, one of three daughters and moved many times with her family while growing up. As a result, Zhang speaks Mandarin Chinese and all the different dialects and travels in her home nation with ease. Zhang grew up and lived in a small city Wuxi near Shanghai, located near Lake Tai and mountains, which resemble the natural landscape of her second home and beloved Champlain Valley.
    While art was part of her schooling growing up, Zhang shared that her sisters were much more the artists growing up than she was. Zhang was enchanted with the outdoors and enamored with all phases of nature and would often escape her kindergarten class, pull her sister along with her and climb the highest trees she could find and was much more a ‘tomboy’ than her sisters. Zhang would study the natural world, had a love of gardening from her grandmother and a peace from being outside. Once in middle school the girls were told their fortunes by a local fortune teller and he predicted that Zhang would travel great distances far away from her home. In retrospect, the fortune teller was quite correct and Zhang’s life has indeed led her far from China and her life’s paths have shifted several times.
    A teacher by trade, Zhang studied Business for her undergraduate work and Art Education for her Masters work at St. Michael’s College. When she arrived in Middlebury, Zhang and her son Robert’s life changed drastically and they were on their own. She began teaching Chinese as well as Chinese Art at Saint Michael’s College, Bennington College, Williams and Green Mountain College and for Zhang, “Art is a way to show yourself and use creativity.” Working on Xuan or Chinese rice paper which Zhang calls, “the soul of Chinese painting,” her work blends the traditional forms of Chinese Art including calligraphy and the ancient representations of the four seasons, Bamboo-Spring, Mountain Orchid-Summer, Chrysanthemums-Fall and Plum Blossom-Winter. Zhang went on to explain that, “often referred to as the four gentlemen, the four seasons represent the characteristics of being tough, humble, flexible and tenacious.”
    An avid hiker and gardener, Zhang sees beauty in all of nature’s creations and exquisite roots and flower patterns and the Middlebury artist pointed out that beauty does not have to be the traditional personification of perfection. “In nature,” shared Zhang, “beauty is like life. Struggle and change shape us and the patterns our lives take are different and beautiful in their own way.” While Chinese painting is definitely different from western art, Zhang feels that with ink, water and paper her students are encouraged to express themselves and find their own patterns in nature. Studying under Chinese landscape master Xubai Li, Zhang blends the skills learned from her teacher with her own direction. Studying with Li is a commitment and showing some of his work she has in her home, she points out the variations in color, style and ink she uses in her own pieces. Her work is not a copy of her teacher but rather her own expression and direction.
    Yinglei Zhang is currently teaching privately at her home and studio and can be reached at [email protected] and encourages Valley Voice readers to take advantage of the Open Studio days on Saturday and Sunday May 23-24th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.to visit not only her 56 High Street Studio, but all the open studios of artists around Middlebury and the state. The weekend of Open Studio was started over twenty years ago to encourage exploration of the diverse number of artists the Champlain Valley has to offer. Whether she is placing brushes in the hands of local elementary school students to try painting or calligraphy for the first time or working with her art students who range in experience from beginners to experts, Zhang creates from her heart, eyes and heritage at the same time.
    Rooted in the art traditions of her native China and supported by her childhood fascination with nature, Zhang’s life path has led her full circle to create that which she loves the most. “When something touches me,” shared Zhang, “I have to create it. Once I start a project I work until I finish. I can’t stop.” She sells her work under the business name of Trillium Art & Beyond and pays tribute to the Champlain Valley which has been her home for the past eighteen years and horizons that are always expanding. Zhang has hours of landscaping projects ahead of her as spring arrives in the Champlain Valley and will extend her art to the natural world around her home and beyond ever changing and always learning. Zhang looks to art as a metaphor for life and encourages all of us to do the same.

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