kartooner

Artist Andy Lee cre­ates some of the most styl­is­tic and beau­ti­ful art­work I have ever seen.

The art­work “[is] done in the tra­di­tional Chan Bud­dhist splash style which orig­i­nated in China, circa 13^th cen­tury B.C. Emperor Chan ruled dur­ing this era, mak­ing this period the Chan Dynasty. The Emperor was very strict and dom­i­neer­ing. He per­mit­ted only spe­cific styles of art and lit­er­a­ture to per­me­ate through­out his coun­try. Any­thing not approved was ille­gal. Linework was very tight and the spoken/written word was extremely structured.

Because of these strict reg­u­la­tions, there became a back­lash of artis­tic expres­sion. Bud­dhist monks who lived dur­ing these times used bam­boo brush, sumi ink and rice paper to med­i­tate with. They would splash paint onto the paper and inter­pret the splashes and wild strokes fur­ther by adding a few lines here and there to cre­ate a rec­og­niz­able image. The monks were not pros­e­cuted because the paint­ings were deemed reli­gious tools. Chi­nese splash paint­ing was invented this way.”

http://www.findandy.com/index.cfm