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West show, began with a brief phone
conversation in November 2018 when
he explained how he developed the idea
for this major painting. He said that
the idea and story wasn’t simply a case
of immediately knowing what type of
composition he would create. Rather, he
started off knowing that he wanted this
major work to be a very large painting
and because of that, he knew that he
would need to have at least five figures
in the composition.
Once that was determined, he
decided that he wanted the figures to
be involved with some type of tribal
ceremony. And from past research, he
had learned how important the rare
white buffalo was in Native American
religious lore, so he developed a story
around a warrior’s war shield that was
covered with the hide of a “sacred”
white buffalo.
After initially formulating the idea
for the painting, Z.S. explained that
he then put together a photo shoot
with Native American models. But
since the idea for the painting had
not as yet been completely finalized,
beyond the fact that it would involve
a religious ceremony, the photo shoot
was done generically to determine the
basic way the multiple figures would be
positioned during a ceremony with the
war shield.
Our initial phone conversation was
then periodically followed by numerous
emails from Z.S. to review the initial
concept drawing and to explain all
the elements in the drawing—i.e. why
the figures were positioned a certain
way, what type of ceremony was being
depicted, the type of clothing being
worn by the figures and what the figures
were holding in their hands.
Over the next several weeks, the
original drawing was revised several
times and throughout that process Z.S.
continued to detail for me—either by
phone or by email—the geographical
setting for the composition, the reasons
why figures were added or moved,
replaced or repositioned, why a figure
was holding something a certain way,
and how the sunlight and the shadows
would result in specific color tones
being either darkened or lightened in
the actual painting.
While all this was happening, Z.S.
also shared the reason why he chose
the specific title for the painting and he
shared the brief narrative that would
accompany the finished painting he
had written to briefly tell the viewer
the “story” behind the composition.
Once he was completely satisfied
with his revised drawing, Z.S. painted
PENCIL DRAWING
“In this 15-by-11-inch pencil drawing, I tried to use five figures to form
the group. It had the high mountain behind them,” says Z.S. Liang.
PENCIL DRAWING, NEW COMPOSITION
“I realized the group was too frontal looking; I did anther drawing 15-by-11-inch
drawing,” the artist says. “I turned the group to the right and added another
medicine man in the front. It looked better and more solid and completed.”
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