Interview with Ai-Wen Wu Kratz
AI-WEN WU KRATZ is originally from Hong Kong.
She is currently living and working in the Washington D.C. Metro Area.
Can you tell us about the moment you decided to pursue a career as an artist?
When my Sophomore year began in college, there was a schedule conflict between the Biology Lab and the Art Lab. I phoned my parents in Hong Kong, from the U.S., about the Major I should aim at. My father advised me to select a field which would warrant me to be a happy person. Undoubtedly, I chose to be a painter, while I also had the options to study Biology or Mathematics. The “fumarolic” indications of my leaning towards Art were multiple. When I was in grade school, I was fascinated by calendars in our living quarters about cargo ships and passenger ships done in engravings by old masters. I saw the very first art exhibition when I was in high school. I was in awe with such a transcendent experience. In college, as a foreign student, I welcomed the silence on campus during holidays, when my work and I experienced oneness either in the Art Lab or while sketching on roadsides. I kept the excitement of Rembrandt’s drawings with me by having a volume of the set under my pillows. I made the transition from a small college in Spokane, WA to the renowned Cranbrook Academy of Art in its Masters Degree program. I was one of the two students awarded a scholarship at the time of admission.
What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?
The principle I uphold is to honor humanity. I often put what duty is required of me in my circumstance before the benefit of my art. I chose to establish my identity as a practicing painter alongside the chains and yokes, joys and sorrows of womanhood. Martha Argerich is remarkable. Womanhood and parenthood have not diminished her career as a pianist. She continues to give concerts up to this day.
What do you want your art to convey to the people who see it?
What is the meaning or creative motivation behind your work? To the viewers of my works, I wish to convey positivity and hope. No artworks of mine carry a literal message. Rather, they are entities that lead the viewers to feel and to imagine so to attain peace and happiness. The creative motivations behind my works are spirituality, intellectualism and aesthetics. I hope my artworks would do what classical music does to classical music lovers. The same it is with what literature does to us. I seem to have aesthetic preferences since an early age. My parents have six children. My mother said that anything I had touched would look better, while my sisters and brothers excel in other areas. The meaning or creative motivation behind my work is to enhance our day to day life. It is not to beautify, but to be able to reach a higher level of spiritual and intellectual experiences.
Can you tell us about the process you use to create your works? What is your typical workday routine?
I had begun sometime ago to incorporate the different tonality between cotton duck and linen canvases into one painting. I had paused for a while from doing it. Now, I am taking on the same pursuit again. My process to create is rather direct. I think of the factual aspects of the material I have in hand. The size and the way to have the units to relate to one another, if it is a composite. Secondly, it is liberating, yet, a difficult stage to delineate the areas of the canvas with thin tapes used for detail work in the auto industry. This stage requires keen judgements and a total immersion of feelings to construct a coherent flow of forms. It would be like a choreographer composing movements for a dance. I use acrylic paints and I seal the thin tapes for delineation with an acrylic medium. The color applications would be another process to compose. A final image will emerge as the different steps progress onward.
On a typical workday routine, I follow the common man’s meal hours to work from 9 to 5, or from 10 to 6 and leave the clean-up to be done later. Here, I would like to repeat a story. It was said that there was a man who was absolutely serious about keeping rigid hours for his work. On weekdays, he was seen in a suit and carried a satchel, leaving from the front door of his house to enter from the back door into his office in the basement. A painter does not wear a suit and carries a satchel to work. But his holy seriousness in work ethics is very inspiring to me.
Where do you find inspiration? What motivates you to create?
Nature presents me unlimited sources of inspiration. A walk along the park would fill me with ideas in creativity. I find inspirations in literature, in classical music, contemporary stage design, choreographic lines in ballet and in vocal arts. “What do people do all Day”, is a children book by Richard Scarry. It is a valuable book to help children understand the interconnectedness of all different professions. The different fields of human pursuits are innumerable. Technology, engineering, science, medicine, philosophy, religion and hundreds more are aiming at making ours a better world. The successes resulted from driven devotions of field experts are inspiring. All the positivity in different fields alert my conscience to make my contribution with my education and training. For me, It is to produce art. Art is for the healing and betterment of our life. In Europe, often, in restaurants, the silverwares are put inside a paper pocket ornated with simple graphics. Such finesse brings unexpected pleasure. Art is not for decoration. Art contributes to our physical and mental wellness.
What has been your most outstanding achievement to date?
In spite of hailstorms, hurricanes, and sunburns from life occurrences, I remain as a practicing painter. I would like to attribute my success to my supportive husband. Jointly, we share our most outstanding achievement to date to have a united family with two high-achiever sons. In turn, they will make positive contributions to the society. In our marriage, we succeed in keeping two professions, Medicine and Art. Along the years, I have received recognitions for my artworks. . Even In difficult times, there is a fire in me calling my name. I find comfort in Maria Callas’ words, “You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist ...... even if your voice is less of a firework. The artist is always there.”
What are your ultimate career goals?
I would like to have my works be accepted into an institutional art collection, either in China or in Hong Kong.
What are you working on now, and what can we expect from you soon?
At this time, I am working on a pair of canvases, one is in cotton duck canvas and the other is in linen. The two would join as a unit. The size of each is 30”x 32”. Hope it would result in a pair of paintings that would encourage me to paint on.
