Cai Xi's Artistic Journey: Three Generations, China to US

Family Artistic Legacy

• 💡 Cai Xi's great-grandfather, a Qing dynasty official, began painting at 50, mastering traditional Chinese painting, poetry, and calligraphy, considering art the highest elite pursuit.
• 🎨 Her father, despite being pressured to be a banker, pursued his passion for art, becoming a stage designer, actor, and makeup artist in Communist China and later in the US.
• 🚀 Her mother consistently emphasized physical health and resilience, persistently running daily and instilling the principle of "Tong" (通) – "Going Through" – in life's challenges.

Early Artistic Development in China

• 📚 Cai Xi's early education was impacted by the Cultural Revolution, leading her father to encourage learning a skill like painting when formal education was condemned.
• 🥚 A foundational lesson from her father was to draw an egg 100 times, emphasizing the subtle differences in emotion and environment, a practice she continues to re-study.
• ✈️ She gained admission to Shanghai Theater Academy as one of 12 students out of 2,000 applicants, an opportunity her father supported by using his entire month's salary for her flight.
• 🌍 After working in a government-run film studio producing propaganda movies, she quit to travel China, often exchanging portraits for room and board.

Journey to the United States and Artistic Evolution

• 🇺🇸 Immigrating to the US in 1987, Cai Xi learned English from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, where the message "You are special" profoundly impacted her self-perception, contrasting with Chinese modesty.
• 🏙️ In New York, she embraced the idea that art is everywhere, finding inspiration in urban textures like subway walls, weathered buildings, and cement sidewalks, using tools like trowels and brooms.
• 🏞️ Moving to Vermont inspired her "Earth & Sky" series, where she sought to "copy nature" and shed ego, viewing nature as the greatest teacher.

Vermont Inspiration and Expanded Practice

• 🧘‍♀️ The Vermont environment led her back to Chinese calligraphy and the concept of qi-yun (flow of energy into balance), integrating it into her abstract works like the "Wu Ji (Infinity Within)" series.
• 🛠️ She challenges traditional art norms by using household materials like mops and house paint, demonstrating that quality art isn't solely dependent on expensive tools or perfect studio conditions.
• 🤝 Her practice has expanded to include collaborations with various artists and community members, using natural materials and spontaneous co-creation.

Philosophical Influences and Life as Art

• 💖 Cai Xi's art is deeply influenced by her mother's principle of "going through" pain, seeing it as a part of life that makes it more interesting and endurable.
• ☯️ She embraces the paradoxes of Taoist philosophy in her art, exploring concepts like appearance-disappearance, nothingness-wholeness, and chaos-groundedness.
• 🍳 Her studio has expanded into her kitchen, viewing cooking as an art form with ingredients as mediums and diners as subjects, reflecting her mother's belief that "every day is spectacular."
• 🥋 She teaches Tai Chi in the community, inspired by her teacher's philosophy that everyone has a "square feet that belongs to ourselves," a personal space for growth and expansion.