Turn decay into magic and carve the scenery of life on the roots of trees

According to Tangshan Cultural Tourism:

Walk through thousands of mountains to find tree roots, and find a few pieces of happiness.

It is intricately carved into shapes and colored and polished with charm.

The tiger leaps and the dragon spreads its wings, and the gods rejoice and the Buddha laughs and reads the text.

The halls of the shuzhai exhibition hall are arranged, and the celebrities of the scholars are rewarded and chanted.

Sculpting stroke by stroke, polishing tirelessly, meticulously painting... With the quiet advancement of one process after another, Zen, a root sculpture with profound meaning and ingenuity, slowly presents a clear and beautiful silhouette.

The root carving artist who is immersed in the creation is Li Xiaodong, a member of the China Root Art Art Society, the executive director of the Tangshan Qishi Root Art Association, the vice president of the Qianxi County Root Art And Stone Association, and a senior Root Art Artist in China.

Li Xiaodong is a native of Haihe Village, Xingcheng Town. In 1993, by chance, he became acquainted with the root carving and embarked on the road of root carving creation.

In the past 28 years, Li Xiaodong has used an ingenious heart and two skillful hands to turn decay into magic, so that many dead wood and waste roots have been "brought back to life", and created tens of thousands of root carving works, with themes involving humanistic allusions, mythological stories, landscapes, birds and animals, etc. Maitreya Buddha with a smile, flowers, birds, fish and insects with exquisite ideas, and far-reaching freehand ornaments... One by one, the magic is amazing.

"Each of his works embodies the persistent pursuit of root carving art, and all of them are pinned on a unique perception of life and life." His peers praised his work.

Root carving 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, through the conception of intention, artistic processing and processing, the creation of characters, animals, utensils and other artistic image works, in China has a history of more than 2,000 years. Root carving art is a plastic art that discovers natural beauty and shows creative processing, and "three points of artificiality, seven points of nature" is its prominent feature. In the creation of root carving, artists often use the natural form of root material to express the artistic image, and a small number of artificial treatments are modified, so root carving is also known as "root art" or "root art".

"Root carving is a hard labor, from the selection of materials, modeling, conception and production, to the naming, often takes a long time and hard work to complete." Li Xiaodong said with emotion, "In order to select materials, I have traveled all over the markets inside and outside the county, visited many farmers, and even searched in the mountains, and it is not easy to find a good pair of root materials." What is even more troublesome is the creation of ideas, sometimes encountering immature ideas, it is difficult to decide on the roots, often after a year and a half of ideas, when the inspiration suddenly arrives, only to start carving. Using the saying "no crazy devil, no life" to summarize Li Xiaodong's root sculpture creation is appropriate.

The sword blade began from the grinding, and the plum blossom fragrance came from the bitter cold. Li Xiaodong's years of hard work have finally borne fruitful fruits. In 2006, his root carving works "Fruitful" and "Stretch" won the first prize of the first "Jiannan Flower Cup" Qishi Root Art Excellent Works Exhibition in Tangshan City; in 2009, his root carving work "Zen" was selected for the 12th Root Stone Fine Arts Exhibition...

From interest to obsession, from obsession to love, from love to dedication, today, the art of root carving has become an indispensable part of Li Xiaodong's life. He said, "I will definitely carry forward the ancient art of root carving to better inherit and carry forward, so that the art of root carving can enter the homes of ordinary people and release dazzling brilliance in the mountains and townships!" ”

attentively

The carving of the world is varied and changing

Depict the road is wide and love is boundless

Ordinary years

Because of this knife of faith

Only to leave the footprints of the trek

Only then do we have the strength to forge ahead

Source: Qianxi Release