(Clearwisdom.net)
The Second Falun Dafa Painting Exhibition
From May 10 - 18, 1997, Falun Dafa practitioners in Changchun held the second Falun Dafa Painting Exhibition at the Nanling Sports Stadium in Changchun, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Master Li Hongzhi introducing Falun Dafa to the public.
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The artworks were submitted by practitioners throughout China, the farthest one was from Hainan Province, and most of them were from Changchun. Over a thousand artworks were received, including calligraphy, photos, wood carving, paper cutting, painting, embroidery, tapestries and other handicrafts. The space in the gallery was very limited. As a result, in order to exhibit as many of these artworks as possible, the practitioners divided the gallery into half with wooden partitions. Both sides of the partitions were used to hang up the artworks. Even though the artworks were displayed on the walls in the lobby, nevertheless, there still wasn't enough space to hang and exhibit the artwork that was received later.
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Calligraphy
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Painting
Most of these calligraphy works were from the original text of Master's lectures. The practitioners expressed their gratitude to Master for their understandings of the Fa and enlightenment through cultivation. Every piece reflected the practitioner's sincere respect for Master and Dafa. Every author created the artworks from their heart.
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The Story of a Practice Site |
The painting exhibition was free of charge and people from all walks of life were welcome. The visitors came all across the country, especially practitioners from Beijing, Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province and Liaoning Province, including some people from other countries. The exhibition was open from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, and people came one after another.
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On-site Arts Seminars
During the exhibition, there were two on-site Arts seminars held by practitioners. At the first one, more than 30 famous calligraphers were invited to the seminar, most of them were cultivators. After they looked at the exhibition, they created some calligraphy to express their gratitude for Master and Dafa. It was originally planned to have these artworks exhibited in other countries, but after the regime started the persecution and with the severe situation in China, the plan for the exhibition was not successfully carried out.
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On-site Arts Seminars
During the second on-site seminar, the organizers invited amateurs in painting and calligraphy as well as students from the Fine Arts Department of Northeast Normal University to show their talent. At the end of the seminar, their works were integrated into a masterpiece that was 35 meters long.
On May 24, 1997, the art students gathered together at a practitioner's house before graduation, then Master came. Master sat on the bed and all the other practitioners sat on the ground. On that day, Master gave a lecture on eastern and western culture and art, and Master especially praised the art in Paris. He encouraged the practitioners to go to Paris someday. Master also mentioned that practitioners who were specialized in arts may play important parts in this aspect in the future. Some practitioners asked Master some questions about cultivation practice, Master answered them one by one. In the end, all the practitioners took a group picture with Master. This time when Master came back to Changchun, he praised the art exhibition and said, “This is your mighty virtue!”
The First Falun Dafa Painting Exhibition
The great success of the second painting exhibition was based on the experiences of the first time. The first painting exhibition was to commemorate the third anniversary of Master spreading the Fa to the public. It was held from May 10_14, 1995 at the gallery of Changchun Science Building. Over 655 pieces of calligraphy, Chinese-style painting, oil painting, printmaking, wood carving, watercolor painting, cloth paste painting, embroidery, paper cutting, pennants, photographs and other handicraft products were exhibited. Within five days, more than 6000 visitors from all parts of China came to see the exhibition, including some Americans.
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Different from the second exhibition, during the first one, administrators from the Provincial and municipal qigong research departments came to the exhibition. After they looked at every piece of artwork very carefully, they highly praised Falun Gong and the exhibition. They also wrote inscriptions for Falun Gong and the exhibition, in which they praised Master for teaching people morality and that Falun Gong is beneficial to the public, and they also encouraged the public to practice Falun Gong. All the pictures of their attending the exhibition and inscriptions were published in the journal, “Falun Dafa is Changchun”.
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Expression of Dafa's Deep Content
There was a practitioner who had just obtained the Fa before the exhibition and she did not have a good understanding of the Fa. Revered Master gave the practitioner a hint in the dream. He explained to the practitioner directly what He had done for her and encouraged her to cultivate diligently and strive forward vigorously. According to the dream, the practitioner made a cloth paste painting to express her understandings of the Fa.
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After the persecution started, the regime ransacked a lot of Dafa books and materials from the practitioners, including these artworks and pictures. The police displayed these artworks and pictures at the Police Academy and showed them to the ordinary people as “evidence” to justify their persecution of practitioners.
When the regime tried to defame Falun Gong by organizing different units to come to the police academy to see this “evidence”, practitioners also went there. When they left, they took Dafa books and some artworks with them. They tried their best to take them back from the evil. Some practitioners even went there with travel bags. The guards just turned a blind eye to this.
Among the artworks, there was an oil painting titled, “Heavenly Ladder”. In the painting a ladder goes up directly into the heavens, at the end of the ladder was a huge hand of Master, with a lotus flower in His palm. The painting delivers the messages that Master gave us the ladder of Dafa, as long as cultivators climb the ladder, he or she will eventually reach consummation. When practitioners took pictures of this painting, a red energy column appeared in the picture, and also the shadow of the column.
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There was another painting, “Going Back Home” created by a practitioner whose celestial eye was open. In this painting, he depicted a magnificent and solemn paradise for us.
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This is the embroidery “Plum Blossom” made by elderly practitioners. When fellow practitioners took pictures of this embroidery, they found in the picture a golden shining Buddha on every plum flower.
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Before the author created this wood pyrography, he didn't have a mature idea about composition. So he first drew the Lord of Buddhas in the middle, then did the figures on both sides. During the exhibition, a visitor found the layout of this artworks was very ingenious. On the two sides of the Lord of Buddhas, there were nine Bodhisattavas and an Arhat. Nine is the greatest number in Buddhism. When the author looked at his works again, he found it was indeed like that. But when he was creating this work, he didn't think about that at all. It seems like everything had been arranged before hand.
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… to be continued
