| The Barnstable Patriot (Massachussets) September 28, 2000 Chinese Artists Embrace Cape Cod By Brad Lynch The 34-year-old twins whose oil paintings can be seen at the Tao Water Art Gallery in West Barnstable are here on their first visit to America from Beijing. But they left their hearts in more tranquil places than China's busy, crowded capital. Xue Dai, the realist in the title of their show, "The Reality and the Dream" that winds up this weekend at the gallery on Route 6A, misses the countryside that she paints in Inner Mongolia, where she and her sister grew up before their marriages and move to Beijing. This affection for home shows in her work, over-the-mantle-size farm landscapes, most with a little girl as the central focus: by a haystack, holding a kitten, tending sheep. Her work celebrates the unspoiled nature of the land and the people in Inner Mongolia, remote from China's great cities. The pictures communicate innocence through the dominant figure, the child, who is in reality her 7-year-old daughter Xue Enger, or "Little Princess." The farms, hillside pastures, the animals and child are realistically portrayed, rooted in her homeland by the artist's strong strokes. The essence of her work is love for her homeland and her child. Xue Mo is the painter of the dream. Still very realistic in technique, this artist recreates the people and the place of a remote part of China, the Li area, where she spent a year getting to know the culture of what is a minority people in China. Li is a home for a pastoral, independent people who speak a different language from most Chinese. They are, the artist said, simple, pure and natural, almost mystical people. After a while with them, the language barrier disappears. They communicate with the changing expressions in their eyes, she said in Chinese translated for a visitor by Dian Tong, co-director of the gallery here. The town of Li is located in a valley, sheltered by mountains, with a gentle climate year 'round that reflects the calm, self-sufficient nature of its people. The two sisters plan to remain in the U.S. for a couple more weeks. In the fortnight they have been here, they have taken to Cape Cod with enthusiasm, especially as they laugh and run in the surf. Tong and Le De Bao, her husband and partner in the gallery, have guided them to museums and galleries in Boston. Next is a trip to New York more museums and Chinatown then back to Beijing on October 7. |
 Xue Mo, Portrait, 2000 |
