【ArtMi】 Before writing this article, I asked myself, what is the use of pure "fun"? The final answer is, it doesn't work. "Fun" doesn't produce much economic benefit, or even pay for a small cake. But it is not very accurate to say that it is useless, and the precious thing about "interesting" is its emotional value. It allows people to get the same satisfaction without eating a small cake.
▲ The work "Let's Get Some Wifi"
In 19 years, a friend gave me a "prescription" notebook, and the book was opened as a stick figure cartoon: a heart was keeping a diary, and the content it recorded was not a text, but an electrocardiogram! Unexpected, but also reasonable. A thousand words come together in one word: wonderful.
▲ Prescription notebook
Friends told me that the author was Tango, a cartoonist she liked, who was good at sketching the whimsical world of subtle things in black and white lines.
▲ Cartoonist Tango
Seeing these creative ideas, she often had the feeling that life was not so boring anymore—"At that moment, I crushed life." Suddenly felt that everything was beautiful. ”
Chicken soup for the soul doesn't have such a miracle effect either. Since then, Tango has become a regular on my watchlist.
▲ The work "Wear a mask and put on makeup and go out again"
Tango's creative base is on Weibo, and almost every day he publishes a stick figure comic. His paintings usually have no subject matter and no fixed figures. Whichever direction he felt particularly deeply, he would draw anything.
His original intention was just to record the touching moments, but inadvertently, he built a fantasy field for fans. Tango did not expect that this imaginary space even carried the weight of a life.
▲ The Origin of Elvis Presley
He once received a message from a depressed fan who talked about his experience: diagnosed with moderate depression, he could only sleep two or three hours a day, which greatly affected his work life. Family, society, friends did not understand her, and sometimes even thought of suicide.
▲ "Holiday Violin Tune"
"She saw my work on the Internet, and when she had insomnia, she would look at it and say that she had been cured, that she could temporarily forget the pain, and that her heart tended to be calm. So she contacted me, and during that time we would talk on the phone, and I explained to her the meaning of my work, and after a period of continuous companionship, she slowly recovered, which made me very pleased. ”
▲ "Let Music Be the Exit of the Soul"
Healing is a high-frequency word in fan feedback, commenting on comics and also commenting on people. Painting is the carrier of the heart, Tango expresses insight and compassion for the world, and his comics can convey the same power.
▲ "Interview"
The black and white lines paint a colorful world, because of Tango's whimsy, numb and stiff people can rarely jump out of the sleepy life and become more stretched and light. Thinking about it this way, the creative notebook, designing Tango as a pharmacist could not be more appropriate.
▲ "Good Night"
Tango, a kind of brightly paced double dance. Dance steps are a confrontation between two styles, serious and bold and gentle and gentle, one side is philosophical, the other is poetry. In college English class, Tango gave himself this English name, but he didn't want to, and the choice of life after that was really like tango, intertwined between rationality and sensibility.
▲ Untitled
As a child, Tango was passionate about art, and once studied sculpture in the Children's Palace of the China Welfare Society, and because of his outstanding achievements, his sculpture director also encouraged him to apply for the Academy of Fine Arts. However, when filling out the volunteer, the family thought that the boys should study mathematics, physics and chemistry, and it would be convenient to find a job in the future, so Tango chose the mathematics department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
After entering the mathematics department, Tango found that the people around him were wearing thick glasses and buried their heads all the time. Students studying mathematics is like chanting the Buddha, as if they must finish reading the Buddhist scriptures to understand a truth. The mathematical laws are fascinating, Tango says, but he can't be such an ascetic.
Lieutenant Colonel Sfaran in "Smelling a Woman" has a line: Life is like dancing tango, it doesn't matter if you take the wrong step, and then you can just jump.
Tango thought, still have to face his own thoughts. He was lucky that in his senior year, the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts happened to recruit students with science backgrounds, and he was admitted as he wished. In the atmosphere of free creation in the Academy of Fine Arts, Tango found himself, and he determined that he wanted to create art and be a conceptual innovator.
▲ "Voices from Aliens"
Later, Tango also revealed that many of his undergraduate classmates are now billionaires, but he does not regret his choice. The path of mathematics was not for him, and he longed for art, and art was more important to him.
Tango, who is sure that he is more suitable for the artistic path, fell in love with the advertising film played in class at first sight. "The world of advertising is fantastic, all types of products are material, and adding a little creativity can make it funny." So after graduation, Tango was like a thirsty fish, and plunged into the advertising industry.
However, after becoming an advertiser, Tango found that the advertising industry customers are more willing than everything else, and the creation is not free. People who come from art backgrounds advertise to customers, and their aesthetic values, creativity, etc., will slowly transform into the customer's aesthetic point of view, which is a very painful process.
▲ The work "Be an Obedient Person"
If the pain is not cathartic, it will be trapped in negativity and sinking. Tango thought that he still needed to do something that he recognized, at least in the creation, he was his own client. So stick figure cartoons became his spiritual outlet.
The night is tango's creative time. Freed from the distractions of daytime chores, he was finally able to calm down and face himself, and then transform his naturally flowing thoughts into lines.
▲ "Penguin's Halloween Party"
Life security and artistic pursuit, rational compromise and emotional expression. Tango constantly switches between the two states, dancing a tango back and forth in his life. Fortunately, Tango is still dancing quite freely. The creation hedged against the oppressive feeling of work, and in the world of comics, he gained great pleasure and satisfaction.
▲ "Let's Listen to the Sound of Money"
The study of the Academy of Fine Arts has changed one of Tango's cognitions: "Contemporary art is that as long as you change the concept, you have the right to decide and speak." "What doesn't make sense, it makes sense from another angle."
The comics created by Tango are a reflection of this philosophy. He made a new interpretation of the familiar things in a dream-like fantasy angle, telling everyone that under the ordinary life, there may be so many dramatic stories lurking.
He wants to give readers a lighthearted smile. Laughter signals "stress relief" to the brain, allowing busy minds to get a moment's respite. Laughter is also an active gesture, suggesting that you have the ability to control your life, rather than living a wooden life.
▲ The work "Shan Yu Hunts down the Emperor of China"
Tango was moved by the funny cartoon record and wrote a "life instruction manual". He defines himself as "the one who draws the instructions," but this "instructions" have no framing answers.
Stick figures have a lot of white space on the picture, which subtly fits Tango's idea: his paintings just provide everyone with another perspective, and the expression of meaning is decided by the reader himself.
▲ The work "wifi pizza"
Not to judge meaning, one is not willing to destroy the infinite space of interpretation. The second is to leave enough thinking gaps for readers. "Thinking can only be a person's business", when you see the picture, the thought that comes to mind is the inner projection of each person's own, and it is worth being perceived.
▲ The Book of Hearts
As for the meaning of stick figure comics to himself, Tango felt that perhaps he was venting his loneliness. He felt like a cat, independent, unsympathetic, always far away from people.
This era is too noisy, everyone is receiving a lot of information, there is less sincere communication, and the part of self-recognition is drastically reduced. It was inevitable loneliness, and drawing comics dissolved this emotion in him.
▲ The collection of nail clippers
I think we can also write our own life manual, record the moments of life that are touched, and occasionally flip through it. When the storm of setbacks comes, it can also be used to block the rain with such a fun moment. This may be the true meaning of "interesting".
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This article was originally produced by Shimmer Species. More content can be read on the WeChat public account "Shimmer Species".