In the News

Online world is craftsman's creative oyster

• Publication Date：05/13/2010
• Source： Liberty Times

Chen San-huo, 60, a believer in lifelong learning, has gone online to share his experiences in cutting and pasting various media to create art.

The website displaying his works has become a hit and provides him the impetus to keep working, he said. In his recent work, he has created dragons and tigers out of oyster shells, with the goal of completing a series of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Chen had long devoted himself to breaking up chunks of ceramics, pasting the various pieces together to form specific figures. After his son helped him set up a blog over a year ago, he started to write entries and upload photos of his works to his site each day. His writings consisted of the stories of how he made the pieces he was showing. This turned a previously blog-innocent Chen into an active blogger.

Chen's blog was a hit from the beginning. Although he had been unable to explain his creative process in the past, he has since forced himself to become a writer who is able to express himself clearly, so he would not lose face with his readers, who are from all different circles and fields. Interaction with friends on the Internet and the constant monitoring of his artwork by others have motivated him to not slack off.

He even started thinking of using the oyster shells that are discarded on the table at meals as a material in his artwork. But since the shape of oyster shells is constant, he faced quite a few limitations in pasting the shells together, and he therefore had to carefully ponder the most appropriate way to assemble the shells.

Chen said the shells are more suited to making animals than human figures, because the clothes worn by the figures need to feature sleek lines, a form hard to present using such materials. His recent shell works include toads, tigers, dragons and elephants. He adds that he is working with several companies to create even more value for his artworks.

(This article originally appeared in The Liberty Times May 12.)