I am excited to have my artwork shared in the Living Magazine May 2017.
I am so thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful friend, Saashya Ridrigo,
originally from Sri Lanka but now working in Austin, TX, who made this all happen!
I would like to share her amazing writing with you.
Shijun Munns Spiritual Art
by Saashya Rodrigo
It was like I was back home in Sri Lanka as I stand in the kitchen lit with
golden sunlight. The rays sing a warm tune that the flourishing potted plants
seem to enjoy. Neatly arranged dessert plates of cookies and chocolates
invitingly look up at me from the table. A most gracious hostess asks more than
once if I would like some tea.
As the dogs bark outside, I'm treated to a tour of the paintings on the wall,
after which the hostess and I return to the kitchen table for a chat. Across
the table from me sits my hostess, a fellow Asian - Shijun Munns who is clearly
no stranger to hospitality.
Growing up in China's Guangdong Province, Shijun discovered her
love for drawing at the age of 10. She graduated from the Guangdong Academy of
Arts in 1987 and has since established an international following - a segment
of which resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where she now lives with
her husband.
There is a ethereal calmness in her personality that seeps
through Shijun's paintings. Her work commonly depicts women with soft features,
porcelain skin and almond eyes: a face that draws inspiration from the faces of
women in Tibet, a region that Shijun holds close to
her heart.
'Image of Tibet' depicts a young Tibetan
girl from the shoulders up. Her dark hair, neatly parted down the middle, is
tucked into a thick scarf that's tightly wrapped around the bottom half of her
face, revealing only her pale nose, rosy cheeks and the window to her soul -
brown eyes.
With
a watery background of pale yellows and ochres, the painting is minimalistic.
Its simplicity provides little to look at; and yet, it is this simplicity that
offers a continuous stream of questions about the girl in the painting and her
story.
'Eye of the Forest' is one such painting. It depicts a pale face framed with green and
turquoise leaves that closely resemble tarnished copper. The woman's face has a
beauty that is almost other-worldly.
She
reminds me of Eve in the Garden of Eden but her eyes, the sharpest element of
the painting, depict a clarity and serenity that is reminiscent of Mother
Nature. To me, the painting pairs well with the words of Kublai Khan, Samual
Coleridge's highly interpretive poem that's rich with imagery, metaphors and
biblical references.
It isn't
often that I'm invited into the home of artists whom I interview; a quality
that is reflected even in Shijun's paintings. Her work is highly interpretive
but not in a complex, haughty, fine-art sort of way.
Despite her highly trained eye and sophisticated
understanding of art, Shijun has a way of using her brush to narrate a story to
which we can all relate. They aren't stories that we fit into; but rather the
opposite, in that our stories fit into them and make Shijun's paintings a
personality that is one of a kind.
With
paintings that combine the trio of realism, impressionism and abstraction,
Shijun is an artist with traditional roots, a modern edge and a spiritual
energy that's as refreshing as it is necessary in today's chaotic world.
Saashya writes a art column for Living Magazine called 'Brushstrokes'
Some of my artwork published in Living magazine
Living magazine cover
With Saashya at my home
My talented new friend Saashya in my home
