Belle Yang

We feature one woman artist per quarter, showcasing her talents and providing information on her current exhibitions and gallery showings.

Belle Yang

Belle Yang is the author an illustrator of two well-known books depicting her father's life in China: Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father's Shoulders, and The Odyssey of a Manchurian. Authoring and illustrating a book is an unusual combination but as Belle says "Chinese language is very visual - I never really separated words from pictures." She has studied both Western and Chinese art. Her paintings perceptively capture the traditions of both worlds and her writing is as rich as the lives of those about whom she writes. Belle recognizes certain conflicts in being a woman and an artist. She sees the sacrifices women make and she likes the freedom that she has by herself. "Art is a very jealous mistress and master and I feel very nervous when I am not painting and writing." She is a solitary person and her work is meditative - she seeks peace with no distractions. This she has found in the home of her parents and in the comfort of her writing desk and the flow of her brush.

Belle Yang's life has always been about stories - from the story of her birth in Taiwan to her arrival in American in 1967 and on to the stories of her travels. Now she tells the stories of her ancestors. Her life has informed her work and her art creates yet another story of Belle, the woman and Bell the artist.

Belle Yang and her parents live in a beautifully serene home on Carmel Hill. Inside, the home is truly a special space filled with paintings, books, and welcoming warmth. The garden is a magical place of carefully pruned and twisting Cypresses and the air clear with the pure sounds of delicate chimes. Here, Belle first listened to her parent's stories and soon, her father Joseph (or Baba as he is affectionately known through Belle's books) was telling his daughter about his life in Manchuria - the people, the land, the hunger and the laughter. Belle points out that it is stories such as these that make us individuals and make us free.

During Belle's difficult years of growing up Chinese in America she struggled to reject her heritage, her cultural identity, the belief system - all that is meant by being Chinese. But through those years she always had her art. Across the street from her house was the home of Nancy Johnson, and important individual in the art scene at the time. Nancy taught watercolor and Belle has strong memories of gathering her art supplies together and climbing into Nancy's green VW so she might attend classes with Nancy's other students. She did this for three summers - painting the landscape of Monterey and listening to the stories of the older adults. Later, Belle would give up the traditional higher education path she was on and take the first step in recognizing herself as an artist; she enrolled in the Art Center College of Design and Commercial Art in Pasadena, California.

In 1986 Belle made a life-changing journey to China where she studies at China's prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts. For three years she studied traditional Chinese art, immersed herself in landscape painting and learned a new perspective upon which to view the world. For this art was not only about space but about time as well. As she traveled in China and observed the countryside she learned the open and honest ways of the people. She studied their holistic perspective of the land and the animals. Belle also learned about the iconography of cultural heritage. As Belle states "I never felt more American than when I was in China." She witnessed the uprising in China in 1989, where her artist friends were being silenced and rebellion was being brutally quelled.

All of this would travel with her as she returned to her parent's home in Carmel. her father gave her good advice: ". . . Don't jump into something with out thinking. Wait. DO your calligraphy. When you reach a level of peace then you will know what to do. Sometimes the opportunities will come to your door." And so they did and Belle's story continued at that moment. The home became a haven for Belle, a place where she could reflect upon all that she learned on her travels and a place where she could learn for the first time the stories of her parents.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this exhibition, please feel free to contact us at nccnmwa@sonic.net

Return to www.belleyang.com