The Artist_s Magazine 2016-03__

48 http://www.artistsmagazine.com

opened the layouts into much bigger panels,

using an ink wash to give it a ‘wetter’ look.”

Indeed, Lemire’s lines in these underwater

panels (see illustration, page 47) don’t cage

in but, rather, lead the viewer to understand

there’s freedom to be found in the distraction

of his work underwater. h e lines connecting

the diver to his rig lead up and out of the panel,

implying an abundance of space, and even the

more rigid lines of the support beams to the

diver’s left don’t end inside the panel but lead

somewhere outward. Wild seagrass and playful

bubbles indicate a lightness of mood.

Style and inspiration come in many forms;

Padua found both during her time studying

theatre in university. “I loved reconnecting

with broad caricatured characters and big

emotion,” she says. “I was fascinated

by commedia dell’arte, Chinese opera

and other kinds of masked theater

using mime and archetypes.”

The Culture Question

h e concept of drawing inspiration

from sources unfamiliar to the writer

or artist’s upbringing isn’t new, but it’s

one that’s surrounded by much debate

in our ever-diversifying societies.

Writers and artists ought to be able

to draw inspiration from anywhere,”

says Yang, “including cultures other

than their own. At the same time, we

must learn to approach other people’s

cultures with humility. Pause before

you start. Make sure you’re real about

what you don’t know; do your home-

work. Publishers need to ask them-

selves, do we have the right creative

team for this? Have we hired people

with the necessary knowledge and

life experience to pull this of ?”

Yang’s graphic novels American

Born Chinese and Boxer & Saints

(two volumes) both feature Chinese

culture as a central focus, and Yang

drew every piece of art for all three,

knowing that he wanted full control

over the storytelling. “Boxers & Saints

came from a longtime fascination

with the Boxer Rebellion,” he says

of the uprising that took place in

1900 in China against the growing

Western inl uence there. “I i rst got

interested in 2000, when Pope John

Paul II canonized a group of Chinese Catholic

saints. My home church was ecstatic. h is was

the i rst time the Roman Catholic Church—

this deeply Western institution—had honored

Chinese citizens in this way.

“I looked into the lives of these newly

canonized saints

and discovered

that many of them

had been martyred

during the Boxer

Rebellion. h ey were

killed because, at

the time, if you were

of Chinese descent

and embraced

Western faith, like

ABOVE RIGHT:Ada

Lovelace is steered

toward mathematics

as a child by a

tyrannical mother.

ABOVE LEFT:In Gene

Luen Yang’sBoxers

&Saints,theChinese

gods seek justice.

©Gene Luen Yang