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BUCKET MEN: PAINTINGS BY JUI-PIN CHANGLetchworth Arts Centre. 2 The Arcade, Letchworth Garden City, Herts., SG6 3EWA vibrant and colourful exhibition by this talented Taiwanese-born artist. January 5 - 30. Free entry. Jui-Pin Chang was born in Taiwan, where she took an Art degree at the Taipei University of Art (one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan), mastering traditional Chinese calligraphy (which she started practicing from the age of six), brush drawing, and many western techniques. She then taught art in Taiwan for approximately two years after which she decided to expand her knowledge and skills, as well as explore new cultures. So she went to the US to study fine art at the University of California. After graduating she again taught art locally. Before coming to the UK she also spent some time in Canada teaching art, and is now dedicating her time to becoming a full time artist. When she arrived in the UK the simple gift of a sketchbook was the stimulus that changed her whole outlook on art. "There seemed to be an expectation that I should fill it. So I began, and somehow ideas flooded into my mind," she recalls. In a matter of months she began to produce an extraordinary body of paintings. It is as if, once started, she could not stop herself, working day and night wherever she could find the (mental and physical) space. "I initially became inspired to explore ideas relating to my own life and experience, as both a woman and a mother." A steady stream of ideas emerged, seemingly un-summoned, from within, and she began to work in an entirely new way, developing her natural ability, responding to the vivid inspiration of both dreams and the newly illuminated world around her. Her paintings explore a wide variety of subjects and delve deep inside herself. "I surprised myself with the profusion of images which begun to tumble out of my imagination, and the rapid development I made in trying to illustrate these ideas." Sketches were transformed into increasingly vibrant and provocative paintings full of colour and imagination. "Initially, in a way, I felt that what I wanted to do was to impress other people. However, slowly I realised that what I actually wanted to do was to impress myself! Originally, I had ability but nothing to say, but now I use my talent to explore who and what I am, what I think and what I feel about the events in the world around me. I have continued to be excited by what I have been able to achieve; my work and the need to do it has become more and more of an obsession." Recently she has begun to explore ideas and images that reflect her cultural background: the feelings of the daughter of a former Chinese emigré, born in exile, in the comparative haven, or uncertainty, of Taiwan; the implications of Mao´s reign; of the ´Cultural Revolution´ and its impact on her family and life, both directly and indirectly – through distance, misunderstanding, loss of identity and roots; that sense of displacement that perhaps ultimately enables an artist to reflect on what is ´home´ and ´self; or what might have been, if things had been otherwise. Her most recent work blends a sense of menace with a quirky humour, men (with buckets over their heads) dancing and agitating, maybe at our expense, in awe, having fun, or as if something illusive, enigmatic or ambiguous, intangible or unrecognised, is going on. Talking about the future, Jui-Pin says: "I´m not sure where my ideas will take me next, perhaps to explore further the relationship between my original background and my present life, through the imagery and the techniques which are a part of both. I have travelled a long way in a comparatively short period of time and there is still so much further to go. However to arrive, will be to better know and understand who I am." 
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