Title: “SHEN NUNG”
(Name of a legendary Chinese Emperor and pronounced, “shin nung”)
Image Size: 31.5” W x 27.5” H
Paper Size: 31.5” W x 27.5” H (unframed) Available
Edition: 25
Artist's Proofs: 10
Printer's Proofs:
Story:
It would seem the Chinese have a lock on the oldest myth regarding the discovery of tea. About 3,000 B.C., an enlightened Emperor ruled China named Shen Nung. Today, he would be right at home with organic farming. He believed in the power of herbs to the point it is chronicled he ate over 365 medicinal plants to expand his knowledge. So, one day while out observing a group of farmers and boiling a pot of water for drinking, some leaves of a nearby tree (a great ancestor of Camellia Sinensis, or tea plant) fell into his pot. The water quickly turned a color, but the inquisitive Emperor sampled the brew from this organic mix. It was the first cup of tea, and from there he made tea and its cultivation a centerpiece of his reign.
Notes on Original Work of Art:
Acrylic, fluorescent and metallic paints on heavy hand-made French watercolor paper, veiled over in hand-made Japanese rice lace, bathed in a mixture of archival beeswax and polymers infused with UV-inhibitors, bordered with wooden insets wrapped with contemporary hand dyed silk, with outside panels covered with Yixing plaster sculpted with 17th - 18th century Asian fabric stamps, then painted and gilded, adorned at right with an early 1800’s Tibetan ox bone hand-carved Vajrasattva Buddha pendant (symbolizing good luck and great fortune), with suspended late 1800’s Chinese tassel, wrapped at top with late 1800’s Tibetan thangka cloth, adorned with early 1800’s Tibetan coral from a lama’s pouch, all mounted onto archival museum board.
Notes on Giclée:
1. The two teapots are hand-embellished by the Artist with brushwork using 8 acrylic and metallic paint colors.
2. The flowers are hand-embellished by the Artist using 33 acrylic and fluorescent paint colors.
3. The four outside border panels are embellished by the Artist with Yixing plaster, sculpted using an 18th century Chinese fabric stamp, painted with two colors and gilded, and all elements affixed to archival museum board.
4. The upper right hand corner has one 17th - 18th century Chinese cash coin, affixed to the border panel using melted religious wax collected from holy temples and monasteries.
Printed using archival inks on fine art paper.
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