New Agricultural Business Network November 11 news In Renzhao Town, Pingdu City, there is such a young man, obsessed with the art of root carving for more than ten years, spreading Excellent Traditional Chinese Art, he is The Stone Rock of Shijiazhuang Village in renzhao Town. A few days ago, the reporter came to Shi Yan's home and walked into his root carving exhibition room, and one by one exquisitely made and different shapes of root art works filled the entire room: beautiful and dignified ladies, exquisite sphinxes, smiling Maitreya Buddha, exaggerated eighteen arhats...
Root carving, one of the traditional carving arts of the Han people, is based on the autogenous form and deformed form of tree roots (including tree body, tree tumor, bamboo root, etc.) as the object of artistic creation, and creates artistic image works such as characters, animals and utensils through conception, artistic processing and processing. Speaking of the connection with the root carving, Shi Yan said that he grew up in the Leng Dongzhuang uncle Leng family home, every day to see the uncle carved wooden shells, he followed the study, began to make slingshots, wooden guns and other toys, and then went to the technical school, the school organized to visit the Exhibition in the Pingdu Cultural Center, he saw a root carving work, instantly shocked by the creator's exquisite knife technique, exquisite conception, and since then he fell in love with the root carving uncontrollably.
"In the past, tree roots were used as firewood for cooking in the countryside, which is a pity." Shi Yan said that he usually went to the village field to find tree roots, at that time, he did not know too much about root carving, but with feelings, he thought that he should find a tree root with a certain characteristic shape, so that it is easy to make good root carving works.
The art of root carving pays attention to three points of artificiality and seven points of naturalization. Shi Yan told reporters that it is necessary to choose wood that is not easy to crack and deform, not to be immortal, from excavating materials to artistic processing, he fully respects the natural form of the tree roots, carefully ponders and repeatedly deliberates on each work, grasps the characteristics of the roots of the tree, absolute, wonderful, and complete, and works with the trend and skillfully carves. "Doing root carving is all based on imagination, each root carving work, according to its original form, ponder what it looks like, after having a concept in the mind, trim off the excess, carve the finishing touch, the work is completed." Shi Yan introduced that the steps of root carving can generally be divided into eight steps: degreasing treatment, peeling and cleaning, dehydration and drying, shaping, finishing, quenching, coloring, painting, and naming. It is necessary to choose tree species with hard material, delicate wood, stable wood, not easy to crack and deform, and immortal to preserve for a long time, such as boxwood, sandalwood, beech, etc. are all good material varieties of root art modeling. Dead roots that have been submerged by silt or buried deeply in the soil, and ancient gloomy root trees formed by hundreds of years of carbonization, their quality is almost close to fossils, and it is a good material for root art.
In order to find more raw materials, Shi Yan quit his job and joined the tree harvesting team to circle around the roots every day, and by chance, Shi Yan saw a dead tree in a village not far from home, the trunk was straight, with different patterns, he immediately bought it and moved it home to make root carvings, and began to brew a big work. According to the vein of the tree roots, while conceiving, perfecting, and carving, it took 3 months to create and complete his proud work. His root sculpture works include two dragon play beads, dragon swimming on the bottom of the sea, flying dragon in the sky, eagle spreading wings and other themes, carving out a beautiful but not losing momentum.
Over the past ten years, Shi Yan has created nearly 200 root carving works, which others feel very hard, but he has enjoyed spiritual pleasure in his tireless artistic creation. Years of perseverance have also allowed their root carving works to continue to receive praise, and many people have purchased their works for collection.
In the creation of root art, Shi Yan has always adhered to the creative concept of "turning decay into magic and turning waste into treasure", and his works not only pursue "positive energy, interest, art, and root flavor", but also pay attention to the excavation of connotations, and strive to make works "thoughtful and philosophical". He said that he will inherit the art of root carving and create a large number of root carving art works with both form and god and high taste. (Reporter Liu Tao Correspondent Cui Ruping)