□ new Tianshui reporter Hong Bo
"The horns are like a deer, the head is like a camel, the eyes are like a rabbit, the neck is like a snake, the belly is like a mirage, the scales are like a fish, the claws are like an eagle, the palm is like a tiger, and the ears are like a cow......
In the year of Jiachen, in the hands of folk clay sculpture artists, what image will the dragon appear in?
On the fourth day of the first lunar month, when the reporter met Zhao Xuhui in the "Tianshui Zhao's Clay Man" studio in the ancient city of Xiguan, which was full of strong New Year's flavor, he was busy teaching the children who came to experience the clay kneading skills, and at the same time he was busy kneading a piece of mud in his hand. With the fragrance of the earth, after a short time, through the techniques of pinching, molding, rubbing, kneading, and pressing, the ordinary mud has come alive in his hands, and has begun to take the prototype of a "dragon".
Zhao Xuhui told reporters that every Spring Festival, he will create some clay sculptures with zodiac elements, hoping to use traditional art to express a beautiful vision for the New Year. This year is no exception, and he still created some clay sculptures with dragons as the theme.
"There are a lot of people in the past few days of the Chinese New Year, because it is the year of the Jiachen Dragon, so the most popular is also the Zodiac Dragon. Since the beginning of the year, I have successively pinched dozens of 'New Year's dragons' of different sizes and shapes, and now there are not many left. No, as soon as the door opened today, someone came over and chose a big zodiac 'New Year's Dragon'. Zhao Xuhui said with a smile.
On the display shelf, at a glance, the zodiac signs "New Year's Dragon", "Big Mouth Dragon" and "Meng Meng Dragon" with slightly open mouths and cute mouths, incorporating cartoon elements and implying smooth New Year's Eve and rain are different, making people feel the auspicious and festive New Year's flavor. And those other clay sculptures with the theme of the zodiac are also lifelike and vivid, which suddenly makes this world cute and intimate.
As one of the ancient folk arts, Tian cement sculpture not only inherits the essence of ancient Chinese traditional sculpture technology, but also absorbs the essence from Western sculpture and Chinese painting. The cement sculpture works are realistic in shape, delicate in character structure, solemn in color and vivid in form, and are deeply loved by people.
From pieces of inconspicuous clay to vivid clay figurines, it takes decades of handiwork. As the provincial representative inheritor of the Gansu Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative Project "Tian Cement Sculpture Making Skills", Zhao Xuhui has been striving to combine tradition and creativity on the basis of inheriting Tian Cement Sculpture, giving new meaning to Tianshui folk clay sculptures, and pinching out a regional culture that belongs to Tianshui.
Walking into the art world between Zhao Xuhui's fingers, there are a series of works created by him in recent years in a space of more than 10 square meters, including the clay sculptures of Fuxi and Nuwa representing Fuxi culture and Dadiwan culture, the clay sculptures of Maijishan Grottoes that embody the culture of Tianshui Grottoes, and the clay sculptures of cans and tea stoves decorated with Tianshui characteristics, most of the works are based on the rural scenes of the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century. The smiling "old man collecting firewood", the "old lady with small feet" dressed in a cardigan, and the lively and lovely "farmer's cute baby" and other vivid clay sculpture works, the characters have rich expressions and simple forms. The lively scenes of fireworks rising from the combination of these characters vividly reproduce the original appearance of rural life in the old days, and the strong nostalgia in the memory suddenly emerges in front of you.
Immersed in the world of clay sculptures, an ordinary piece of clay has been given a new life through the hands of Zhao Xuhui, not only reshaping the most precious memories of the past, but also giving life a unique beauty.
At the end of the interview, the dragon clay sculpture that Zhao Xuhui was creating in his hand had also been completed. He told reporters: "You see, the dragon head, dragon body, and dragon tail of this work are all high-spirited, implying that everyone is forging ahead in the new year, and I hope these clay sculptures can add a joyful atmosphere to everyone during the Spring Festival!"