Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Cao Cao... Each small eggshell shows the graceful style of the opera mask, the eggshell is upside down, the shape is different, and the image is vivid. The eggshell, which seems to be useless, glows with new artistic value in the brush of Zhao Limei, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage.
The face of the traditional opera characters is painted on a small eggshell, the front side is the opera mask, and the back is written with a small seal to write the name of the face mask and the production time, which is a kind of eggshell art integrating painting and calligraphy. Because of its long heritage history, bright colors, beautiful composition, and high collection value, it is recognized as the symbol of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. In 2016, the hand-painted eggshell face mask was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage items in Linyi City, Shandong Province.
Zhao Limei, who was born in Fei County, Linyi, grew up in a family of dramatists, and was nurtured by the family environment, and has had a strong interest in the art of opera since she was a child. She can never forget all kinds of faces in the opera. In order to let more people understand opera masks, Zhao Limei used eggshells as a medium and embarked on the road of promoting opera culture and inheriting the art of face masks.
The creation of eggshell masks not only requires the painter to have a very good understanding of the art of opera, but also to have a solid foundation in painting, which often requires a lot of effort. "The most important thing in painting eggshell face is to stop water, if you use too much force, it will be crushed, and if you don't use force, the coloring will not be in place." Even if she is experienced, every time Zhao Limei gets the eggshell, she still holds her breath and is cautious. From composition to drawing, from front to back to writing the name of the face with a small seal, it takes two days to make an eggshell face mask.
Washing, disinfecting, drying, and then punching holes to extract the egg mixture, the first step in making an eggshell face mask is to find the right eggshell. When it came to finding eggshell raw materials, Zhao Limei opened the conversation, "Eggs, duck eggs, goose eggs, ostrich eggs... After buying the eggs, punch the holes yourself, then pull out the egg mixture, wash and disinfect it before making it. But the eggs we bought with so much money, the egg liquid can't be thrown away, it's just the last egg, the next goose egg, and you can eat enough! After more than 100 attempts, she finally found that goose eggshells and ostrich eggshells are thick and have a good background, which are high-quality raw materials for making eggshell faces.
"Our country's theatrical mask is a traditional culture that is worth promoting." Zhao Limei said that in order to continue to pass on the skills of eggshell masks, she will take intangible cultural heritage to the campus and into the community, and is committed to letting more people understand and fall in love with eggshell masks.
Zhao Limei believes that only innovation can bring Eggshell Face to life, which is why she insists on participating in the exhibition. Through face-to-face communication with traditional culture lovers, you can get some creative inspiration, so that eggshell face mask works are more down-to-earth and more suitable for the new era. "The inheritance of culture and creative inspiration cannot be measured by money, and to maintain the vitality of art is to keep creating." Zhao Limei said.
Talking about how to develop in the future, Zhao Limei said frankly that many tourists suggested that she create faces shaped by cartoon characters and film and television dramas when buying eggshell masks, which gave her a new creative goal. In the next step, Zhao Limei will create eggshell masks that are not only suitable for the current fashion, but also traditional, and can be modernized, so that more young people will like this traditional skill.
Zhao Limei said: "Eggshell face painting is not only a traditional Chinese folk art, but also a link for Chinese folk intangible cultural heritage to go out of China and to the world, and I want to do my best to inherit and develop this skill." ”