叶欢玲，马来西亚马六甲人，马来西亚工艺大学景观建筑系荣誉学士，马来亚大学中文系
硕士。喜欢世间举凡与美相关之人事物景诗书画。散文随笔载于马来西亚各大报刊，现为《中国报》副刊专栏作者。
About the Painting Selector:
Ms. Yap Huan Lin was born in Malacca, Malaysia. She obtained Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from University of Technology, Malaysia, and Master of Arts in Chinese from University of Malaya. She is an aesthete who loves poetry, calligraphy and paintings. Her articles and essays are published on newspapers and magazines in Malaysia. She is currently a weekly China Press columnist.
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诗玲让我为其水墨画集选画，恭敬不如从命，然而自觉资历不足。 “这样更好！”她说，“那样你就不会替我的作品，套上一堆艺文理论。”于是斗胆接下这项任务。画集以《野生的心：郭诗玲水墨画集》命名，就带出了不只诗玲在作画时，让心中野马脱缰飞驰在画纸上；选画者也一样，以大自然原生态中未经人工培训、单纯审美的心去品味和领受其作品中，酸甜苦辣的滋味、悲欢离合的情愁。
初遇诗玲，一年200幅的狂热
对于诗玲作品的第一印象，始于2015年获得第19届台湾国家文艺奖的小说家，李永平老师的画像。曾经在南洋理工大学旁听李老师的创意写作课，为期半年，那期间经常在校园里遇见他，打个招呼、问声好，李老师提起创作时眼里闪现的光辉、课后他汗流浃背的样子，深深烙印在脑海中。2017年9月，当李老师辞世的消息传来，我握住手机，蹲踞在马路旁，一双手颤抖不已，眼眶儿热了，心却凉凉的。不久，在脸书上看见朋友转发的帖子，那是诗玲为李老师画的肖像《写，像个孩子（敬悼李永平老师）》（页30）。画中捕捉到李老师的神韵，让见画者宛如亲睹李老师一样，不可思议！我想，倘若李老师尚在人世，看见画像，会刷亮
了双眼并告诉她：“画吧，继续画，要多画！”也说不定。
约莫半年后，机缘巧合下认识了诗玲。听说她出版了四部诗集，又积极报读了一年的水墨画班，我想下班后得打起精神上课，且每周一次、为期一年，若无强烈的兴趣与过人的毅力，恐怕难以达成。光看诗玲在短短一年内创作出200多幅作品，对水墨画的狂热，让人动容！
诗玲的画，有着强烈的个人风格。她的笔触豪放不羁，作画主题多元，不只画意新颖，创意无限，为画作命名立意，也经常引人会心一笑：或幽默风趣，或戏谑人生……常言道，画如其人。打从认识诗玲以来，她就再三告诫我这经常以散文和小品记录生活的写作人，要是胆
敢把她写入文章里头，我俩的情谊将告一段落。现在既然她让我写一写她的画，我又怎么能不提一提其人呢？唉，真叫我好生为难！
2018年6月15日，星期五的晨，我开着音乐，喝一杯热可可，等待诗玲把画作带来，让我挑选。就在指针一步步走向约好的时间，震耳欲聋的雷声轰隆隆响起，豆大的雨点忽然从天上
来，打在窗外山坡、拍在窗台上。诗玲发简讯来，说不好意思，怕弄湿画作，她得晚到。透过雨帘，只见外边灰蒙蒙一片，大树在风雨中猛烈摇摆。雨渐歇后，寂寂的长廊响起了轮
子拖曳的喀啦喀啦声。诗玲抱着画筒、拖着行李箱，来到门前。
那行李箱和画筒里边，一共有200幅画，完成于2017年6月27日至2018年6月15日期间。从中，我们淘汰了53幅作品，147幅收录于此画集中。诗玲将画集分成八辑：“人儿藏心间”、“动物
派对”、“插翅好家伙”、“草民”、“吃的用的有的没的”、“景色无边”、“来点可爱的”、“戏仿”。
善于捕捉人与动物的独有神韵
笔者认为，画人不易；在几笔内要把一个人的形象勾勒出来，尤其困难。诗玲画人不似照相般画个十足，但是她能抓住对象的特征，捕捉到一个人独有的神韵，好比诗作被选录在台湾高中课本、并获编为曲、得到传艺金曲奖最佳作词人奖的台湾诗人向阳老师，2018年3月他到狮城进行讲座“时间•空间与人间：诗与日常的对话”时，笔者现场见过其人一面，看见诗玲笔下的《性喜向阳》（页49）时，禁不住愣了一下，回过神时喃喃道：“还挺像的哟！”
又有一次，下班后跟着诗玲，去新加坡南洋艺术学院（Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, NAFA），旁看她的水墨画导师蔡宝龙老师当场示范画竹子。月余之后，当我看见诗玲绘出其水墨画班大合照《我们毕业啦》（页52），画中人物不点目睛，不画口鼻，但是那蔡老师却有着超越形体的相似，格外传神，即使对水墨画技术精炼的人，做到这一点也未必容易吧！只能说，诗玲具有画画天分。
我尤其喜欢诗玲笔下的动物，生动有趣，创意出人意表。不管画猫画狗、青蛙、猴子，在她笔下，动物都有了自己的个性、自己的脾性。欣赏一幅水墨画，也许我们期待立意要“雅”，她偏偏在宣纸画上小狗撒尿、大狗拉屎。你说它不雅吗？它固然不恬淡冲和，跟不食人间烟火也无所挂钩，然而它不装腔作势，或披上风雅的皮。诗玲作画，有一种傲骨，它的雅是内里渗透出来的。你看，狗们可是为草木、为大树《施肥中》（页68与69）哩！至于《这是我的山头，不信踢不到太阳》（页64）呢，红屁股蹦跳的小猴子固然调皮可爱，此外还蕴含着一种“天不怕，地不怕，我要做的事一定办得到！”的力量。
以过人的感受力，画出新意
此外，再平常的题材，也能画出新意来，这是诗玲的创意。好比西瓜这种热带极受欢迎的解暑水果，在其画中就有了不一样的构图：大西瓜怀着切片小西瓜，并命名为《道》（页130）。而瀑布作为水墨画中的景色，再普遍不过，当我看见诗玲画的瀑布时，却觉得“咦，这挺有意思嘛！”。鸟瞰像尼亚加拉瀑布（她说是伊瓜苏瀑布）的《不如我们从头来过（伊瓜苏瀑布）》（页154），画意是可供玩味的。
诗玲的画作，从感情出发。她把情感寄寓于画中，可以读到难以言喻的痛楚，甜蜜温暖的幸福……画中有她风趣调皮的一面，也有她忧愁悲郁的一面。对于生活、人事相处、周遭景物等，诗玲有着过人的感受力。她的温柔与坚毅，她澎湃与汹涌的情感，全都掩隐在一笔一画中。
收录于辑四“草民”的《仙人之掌（不敢和你击掌）》（页122），那构图、那笔触、那力度，让人感受到一股强烈的情绪在里头，唯有在情绪驱使之下，才能一笔勾成吧，就连诗玲本人，往后恐怕也未必复制得来。《美好，不会消失》（页42）画中女子娇羞的神态，
温柔的笑容，料想跟诗玲非要有着一般亲昵，才能呈现出来。此外，当笔者投入去看，有两幅画是让人自心底打个寒颤的！《残败又自由的人生》（页110）及《要饲料还是要自由？》（页105）那种极度沮丧、灰暗的情绪，具有强烈的感染力，绝望的人看了，会泯灭心底的最后一盏微光。
诗玲说，她最不擅长的，是戏仿，然而我喜欢她仿梵谷（Vincent van Gogh）的《向日葵》（页178）和《星空》（页179）……噢，没错，在我看来，那确实不似仿画，更像再创作。
投入灵魂与生命，孩子般的艺术感
我也喜欢《幸福的重量》（页156），画面温馨、有感染力，像跨页的儿童故事书，刻画着家庭幸福。《偷懒无罪》（页95）中的那只老鹰，跟一般画家笔下英姿焕发的老鹰不一样，它不帅气，光天化日也不去打猎，在树梢歇息偷懒呢！看它雄赳赳的样子，具有笑点，过目难忘。我想，也许作者的情绪也寄寓在里头。嘿，就算是鸟中之王老鹰，也需要休息哦！身为凡人，我们在生活中也需要透口气！
《朋友，你要睡到几点？》（页58），以猫、小鸟和玉米为主题，是诗玲仿画中国广东画家方楚雄的构图，可爱而充满趣味，是笔者喜欢的一幅。此外，辑五“吃的用的有的没的”收录的《“相见时难别亦难”（李商隐）》（页142）、《叮叮电车》（页139）、《抵达是一件难事》（页140），除了画名引人深思，构图着墨质朴天然，也很好看。《是爱啊，狗熊》（页60）更让人爱不释手，笔者仿佛看见了从前在北京宛平城邂逅的狮子狗，一身毛茸茸，满发盖住眼睛，肥胖屁股扭扭摆摆走前来。诗玲的画让我们看见，水墨画的题材也可以不呆板，未必非要表现特定的山水和梅兰竹菊等传统元素。
一个作画人的画功和技法，要绝对纯熟并具有高度水平，是需要日久生成的。诗玲学了一年的水墨画，我们不能把她的画说得天上有、地下无，优点以外，缺点必然存在；然而她是投入灵魂与生命去创作的，记得我们一同选画那天，翻看不同的画时，她的脸上出现不同的表情：痛楚、欢愉、幸福……她的画中有她的情绪，她的感受。寄情于画以外，诗玲没有被技巧戴上手铐，她自由发挥自己的艺术感，画中不乏孩子般的艺术感。毕加索（Pablo Picasso）曾说，自己能在短时间内画得像一位大师，却要用一生学习画得像个儿童。我想，在创意的培养上，诗玲的作品是令人欣慰的，也具有其意义与价值。
叶欢玲女士
2018年7月8日
新加坡南洋理工大学
When See Ling asked me to select her Chinese paintings for her album, at first I considered myself unqualified to undertake such a task. “That’s better,” she said, “because you won’t apply all those artistic concepts onto my works.” So, I decided to give it a try. The title Untamed Heart: Chinese Paintings by Quek See Ling not only tells us that See Ling draws heartily and freely; but as the
selector of this album, I adopted a simple natural aesthetic approach in appreciating her artworks: there are happiness, anguish, regret, sadness, pain, bitter-sweetness, as well as feelings and sentiments in relation to the vicissitudes of life.
First Met See Ling, 200 Works Per Year with Her Enthusiasm
My first impression on See Ling’s painting was formed when I saw a portrait painting of Mr. Lee Yung-ping, the novelist who won Taiwanese 19th National Cultural Award in 2015. I attended his creative writing course in Nanyang Technological University for half a year. I still can remember vividly the greetings I had with him when we met in the school campus, his sparkling eyes whenever he talked about literary creation, and his sweaty face after each class. Unfortunately, he passed away in September 2017. When I knew about the news, I squatted at the roadside, my hands were trembling, my eyes went red and my heart turned cold. After that, I saw a post shared on Facebook – a portrait of Mr. Lee, Write Like a Child (Condolence to Mr. Lee Yung-ping) (p.30) by See Ling. The painting captured Mr. Lee’s inner essence so skilfully that its close resemblance made one feel like seeing Mr. Lee in person. It was absolutely incredible! I believe, if Mr. Lee is still alive and sees the portrait, his eyes would definitely brighten up and tells her, “Draw, and keep drawing!”
Around six months later, I happened to know See Ling in person. At that time she had already published four poetry books and had been actively attending a Chinese painting course. It was never an easy task because it was a weekly course for a year. Unless one has a very strong interest with an
extraordinary perseverance, taking on and completing a part-time course is close to an impossible mission. However, when you look at See Ling’s more than 200 pieces of paintings completed within that one year, you just cannot help but admire her great passion in Chinese painting.
Her paintings reflect her strong personalities. The lines and strokes are bold, the subjects she draws cover a broad spectrum of themes, and the titles describe the abstract concepts nicely. They are creative, humorous and sometimes mocking on life – just like her in person. I am a writer too, but ever since I know her, she always warns me not to characterise her into my proses. But how can I make commentaries about her drawings without mentioning her?
On 15th June, it was a Friday morning in 2018, with some soothing music playing and a mug of hot cocoa, I was waiting for See Ling to bring me her paintings for selection. Just before the agreed time, thunder started rolling loudly in the sky, and rain started pounding down heavily. It beat against the
trees outside, the roof and the windows. It was a severe thunderstorm. Soon, See Ling sent me a text message and apologised that she would be late as she was concern her paintings may get damped in the heavy rain. I waited and watched the rain outside. It was dark. The trees were shaking violently in the storm. When it began to stop, I heard a clacking sound of a luggage from the corridor. Here she came, carrying a scroll holder and a luggage containing 200 pieces of her paintings, which were painted between 27th June 2017 and 15th June 2018. We excluded 53 and chose 147 pieces of paintings for the collection. She categorised them into eight series: “Person in Mind”, “Animal Party”, “Flying Little Fellow”, “Plant & Fruit”, “Anything, Whatever”, “Endless Scenery”, “Show Me Cute”, and “Imitation for Fun”.
Good at Capturing the Likeness of People and Animal
I believe it is difficult to draw a person, especially when you want to draw an image of a person in a few sketches. Her skill does not work like a camera, but she pick up the unique features and inner essences of a subject. Here is an example, I met Mr. Xiang Yang in person, a Taiwanese poet in 2018 when he came to Singapore for a public lecture, ‘ Time, Space, and the Human World – Poetry
and the Everyday’. His poems are included in Taiwanese high school textbook and he also won the Best Lyrics category at the Golden Melody Awards. When I saw See Ling’s Fond of Facing the Sun (A Portrait of Poet Xiang Yang) (p.49), I was mesmerised and said to myself: “It’s so closely resembled!”
And there was another example related to her lecturer and classmates at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). I had a chance to sit in the lesson whereby Mr. Chua Poh Leng, her Chinese painting lecturer demonstrated how to draw a bamboo. A few months later, when I saw See Ling’s work Yeah, We Graduated (p.52), a “group drawing” for the classmates in the Chinese painting class, the details of their faces were not touched up, but I could still recognise Mr. Chua immediately. The likeness of his image on the drawing paper really amazed me. I believe it is not an easy task, even for those who have mastered Chinese painting. So, I am convinced that See Ling is indeed a talented painter.
I really like the animals on her paintings. They are vivid, funny, energetic and imaginative. All animals under her brush have their own character and temper, regardless which type of animal they are - cat, dog, frog or monkey. When we are looking at a Chinese painting, we normally expect to see
a classic elegance, but what she drew was a puppy’s peeing and a big dog’s pooing. Will you say it is inelegant? It is not conventional, and is nothing related to otherworldly, but it is figurative. Her unique arrogance is clearly expressed, yet an elegant ambiance permeates through every piece of her
works. The dogs’ action is for Fertilising (pp.68-69), as described by the title of the painting. While for the small monkey in This Is My Hill, I Don’t Think I Can’t Kick the Sun (p.64), though it looks mischievously cute, it also possesses an ultimate strength of “I fear nothing at all, and I am determined to do whatever I want to do!”.
Great Sensibility, High Creativity
On top of that, no matter how ordinary an object is, she can draw it creatively. For example, one of her paintings in this compilation, watermelon, a popular tropical fruit especially during the summer season, is drawn as a big round watermelon containing three slices of smaller ones – is named as
Tao (p.130). Waterfall is another common subject in Chinese painting. When I saw See Ling’s How About We Start It All Over Again (Iguazu Falls) (p.154), which is a drawing like Niagara Falls (Iguazu Falls actually as she said), it is really up to one to interpret its actual meaning.
See Ling draws emotionally. We can always find her both unspeakable pain and sheer happiness emotions from her drawings… Her paintings reveal not only her sense of humour and playful characters, but also some of the other aspects of her characters - gloominess and melancholy. She is sensitive towards her life, relationships and everything else surrounds her. Her gentle and perseverant qualities, and her many surging sensations and excitements are all hidden in her drawings.
In the series of “Plant & Fruit”, Cactus – Dare Not Give Me Five (p.122) shows a tactile impression, strong visualisation and extraordinary composition. It is clearly driven by some strong emotions, and I think even See Ling herself may not be able to replicate the same work in the future. And for Joyfulness Will Last (p.42), the lady in the drawing looks shy but has a sweet smile, it must be a person very closed to See Ling, otherwise she might not be able to draw it in that level of details. Nevertheless, there are two pieces which are chilly – Miserable But Free Life (p.110) and Feeds or Freedom (p.105). They show deep dejection and negative emotions, which its negativity is
infectious. If someone is depressive and sees these paintings, they may feel the last candle of their life burns itself out.
On the other hand, See Ling told me that she is not good at imitating other artworks, but I really like her cover of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers (p.178) and Starry Night (p.179). Oh yes, for me, they are re-creation.
Devote with Soul and Life, Paint Like a Child
I also like her Weight of Happiness (p.156), which conveys the message about the blissful warmth from family bonding. It looks like a spread in an illustration book or story book. In her No Harm Taking a Rest (p.95), there is an eagle which does not look like eagles on other painters’ works,
it does not look cool at all and not hunting for its food but resting on top of a tree! Well, I guess even the King of Birds needs some rest too, we as ordinary human beings also need to slow down our pace in life!
Hey Friend, When’ll You Wake Up? (p.58) is one of my favourite which imitated Guangdong-based artist Fang Chuxiong’s composition. There are cat, bird and corn as different subjects in the painting. In addition, under “Anything, Whatever” series, there are several drawings such as “So Hard for Us to Meet and Part” (Li Shangyin) (p.142), Ding Ding Tram (p.139), Arriving Is Difficult (p.140), etc., not only have provocative titles, the compositions are simple and natural. I like her It’s Love, Bear (p.60) as well, which made me recall a Pekingese puppy I met in Beijing Wanping Fortress. That little furry, long-haired and walked with a rolling gait’s small creature. See Ling’s drawings show that Chinese paintings can be non-rigid and lively, they do not necessarily be stereotyped by mountain and river, or conventionally expressed in traditional cultural elements such as plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum.
A painter needs to practise years and years to be acquainted with skills and techniques. See Ling only learns Chinese painting for about a year, so we cannot praise her works like masterpieces, inevitably there are defects. Yet, she devotes her soul and life to create all these paintings. I remembered when we were choosing these paintings for the collection, she showed different kinds of facial expressions when we browsed through them – pain, joy, happy… All these paintings contain her true feelings, her true sensations. On top of that, See Ling is not bounded by her skills, she expresses freely her artistic self and draws everything with her heart, and like a child. Just like what Pablo Picasso has said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”. I am pleased with See Ling’s works in terms of creativity cultivation, and they are definitely meaningful and valuable.
Ms. Yap Huan Lin
8th July 2018
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
