Found Treasure

When I was sorting through some old documents recently, I found these two pieces of drawing paper with characters inscribed on them. They were both done by Situ Jie, a sculptor from Beijing who stayed with me and Peter at our home in the country for several months back in the mid-1990s while Situ Jie and Peter worked together on some sculpture projects. In the evenings, after a long day of work in the studio and then dinner, we would sit and talk and exchange stories. One evening, we started to talk about written language and Situ Jie illustrated some of the things he was telling us about Chinese writing by drawing these characters on paper. I have preserved this piece of paper ever since. I think it is a beautiful work of art in itself.

Situ Jie also drew this on some paper using my chalk pastels. I have forgotten the occasion but also preserved this piece of paper. It was nice to see these again after many years.