“In my own work, I do everything by hand; I don't project. I do spend a lot of time trying to perfect my line work and my hand, but my hand will always be imperfect. Because it's human. ..if I spend a lot of time going over the line, and over the line, and trying to make it straight, I'll never be able to make it straight. From a distance it might look straight, but when you get closer, you can see the line waver. And I think that's where the beauty is. ”
—the late, great Margaret Kilgallen.
A Sweet Art - Sugar Painting
In and around China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, it is usual to see some folk artists producing sugar paintings with liquid sugar along the streets, in the parks, and around the schools.
The artists normally sit before a wooden stand where there is a polished slab of marble in the middle. On the side of the stand is a revolvable bamboo arrow and a wooden plate painted with various patterns in a circle such as a loong (Chinese dragon), bird, dog, flower basket and so forth.
After paying about 5 jiao, or 1 to 2 yuan, the customer, normally kids, turn the arrow and wait till it stops. The pattern the still arrow points at is the one the artist is supposed to make with sugar.
Some rich kids or adults who do not want to gamble could order any pattern the artist could do by paying a higher price.
The painter uses the brown sugar or white sugar as the raw material, the bronze spoon and a shovel as the tool, and the slab of marble as the “paper”. To acquire liquid sugar, he/she has to cook the solid sugar in a pot before painting. The liquid sugar falls down as a thin thread onto the “paper” from the slanting spoon. After a short while, a plane animal is created, or even a solid bike and a flower basket. Then the painter separates the painting from the marble with a shovel, puts a wooden prod on the painting or wraps it with a transparent plastic bag, and gives it to the kid. In the sunshine, holding the shining sugar painting when walking along the street, the child is proud and happy.
Source: Chinese Food Fans Camp
