Starting, setting, sketching... topping, spreading, pinching... In He Lei, there are two brushes, one is a pencil and the other is her hands.
Behind the profession of Chinese etiquette teacher and art teacher, He Lei also has another identity: the creator of sand painting.
From the first time he saw the sand painting performance in 2015, He Lei has been able to completely design and create performances of colorful sand and single sand.
Looking back on the 7 years spent with sand painting, He Lei said that sand painting opened another window for her to observe and understand the world.
most challenging
It is the "transition" of sand painting
He Lei is from Gansu.
On Father's Day in 2015, she saw the colorful sand painting program "Father's Shoulder" on TV, which opened up a new world: "Wow, sand can still paint!" He Lei discovered that sand can not only paint, but also paint. The familiar "painting" is put on the stage in a different form.
As soon as he said it, He Lei began to look for a way to learn sand painting.
"In the beginning, I was self-taught sand painting. After I came to Chengdu in 2016, I found Sister Han and studied in her sand painting studio for a while." "Sister Han" is Luo Han, who was the first in China to engage in sand painting art creation and art. One of the sand painting performing artists studied and the founder of color sand painting, the "Father's Shoulder" that He Lei saw before is Luo Han's work.
He Lei feels very lucky to be able to learn from the teacher who led him into the world of sand painting.
Because when He Lei first expressed his desire to study with Luo Han, he was advised to "practice for a while and come again".
He Lei was not discouraged, and after a year of self-study, he came to Luo Han's studio again, and then he successfully apprenticed.
In the process of learning sand painting, the experience of learning art since childhood has helped He Lei a lot.
"For example, the structure of painting and the effect of perspective. If you have art skills, you will understand these contents more thoroughly. If not, you need to make up these foundations in the process of learning sand painting," He Lei said frankly. " I also belong to the type of learning while supplementing." Although he has been studying art since elementary school, and in junior high school and high school, he also focused on sketching and studied systematically, but the creation of sand painting is still full of fun for He Lei. challenge.
According to He Lei, the most challenging of these is the "transition" of sand painting.
"How to connect painting and painting is the essence of sand painting." He Lei said that if the transition of the whole picture is done well, and the texture of the sand is expressed, it may become the most brilliant in the whole video. link.
"When the audience is watching, they never know what will appear in the next second. This is what they are curious about. This is also the part of our sand painting performance that can have the most personal style." He Lei himself prefers to use The switch between close-up and long-range to complete this link.
Switching from the park in the city to the hot pot on the dining table, the labels of “Park City” and “Spicy Taste” in Chengdu can all become figurative graphics, which are seamlessly connected under her hands and become the unpredictable “magic world”. a scene.
draw carefully
Every ordinary story around
From material arrangement, hand-painted design, sand painting, recording, the entire sand painting creation process, He Lei takes 7 to 10 days.
In the past 10 days, it seemed that He Lei only dealt with sand, but in fact, the sand painting brought her more than the square drawing board.
"After graduating, I moved from school to another school as a teacher, without any experience in observing the world deeply. Sand painting is suitable for telling stories, and it allowed me to understand different stories in the world." In 2019, He Lei She made a sand painting with the theme of "Cliff Village", she said: "I then learned that there is still such a village, and such a group of children have to travel such a long and dangerous journey in order to go to school. "In 2020, He Lei explained and demonstrated sand painting to a group of gray-haired seniors at a senior university.
"Uncles and aunts in their 60s and 70s, they are a very lovely group of people. Although they only draw simple landscapes and flowers, they ask questions when they don't understand. That kind of mental state of living and learning makes me think, That's how we should be when we get older."
In the 7 years he has been in contact with sand painting, He Lei not only uses sand painting to tell stories, but also chooses to use sand painting to record the big and small things that happen around him.
After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, He Lei spontaneously recorded the stories of front-line anti-epidemic workers with sand paintings; He Lei will use sand paintings to participate in the wedding of He Lei's younger brother and the baby's birthday banquet.
Sand painting has become a way for He Lei to participate in the world and express himself.
"Of course I'm nervous when I'm performing. But as soon as I stand on the stage, when the music starts and everyone watches me quietly, I feel confident." He Lei has accepted many invitations The sand painting performance also took this opportunity to see more extraordinary things about ordinary people.
Although sand painting is still a niche art, He Lei believes that the high viewing value and storytelling of sand painting will definitely be recognized by the public.
For her, the current plan is to "draw every ordinary story around me carefully, so that sand paintings can be seen by more people".
Cover reporter Liu Kexin