WPC - The Work of a Unique Hand

 

On occasion, I’ve used pictures from a college art exhibition as illustrations. The image in the masthead of this site is a modified version of one of those pictures. Any one of those pictures would certainly qualify as “unique,” and I invite you to check out the whole set. But I’d like to pick out one that stands out for me, if only because of the person who created it.

 

Now, by itself this might not pop out like some of those shots (well, apart from the fact that I messed up the focus). But you might want to ask yourself why a Chinese artist would run a full exhibit inspired by imagery and art of Christendom and the Crusades. Most of the pieces in that photoset are heavily inspired by Chinese imagery and styles, but there’s no trace of them here.

It all traces back to the author, a man who really didn’t fit in.

I’ve written about him before, under the pseudonym “Wang Peng,” but there’s always more. That’s why I write about people – there are always things you’ll never quite understand, but learning about them is just fascinating.

He’d lived overseas himself, and had developed a real love for Western culture – black coffee, chess, Western animation, medieval art, the works. But more than that, he had also embraced Western ideals – individualism, independence, the pursuit of ideals. The interesting part was where he integrated the two. One day, I should tell you about his elaborate theory on how Tom & Jerry cartoons are symbolic of man’s struggle against tyranny.

But I can’t really joke too much about it. I feel like listening to his theories is what finally killed my interest in American politics. These days, it just sounds like so many whinging, spoiled brats complaining because their toys aren’t shiny enough. There’s something distasteful about people rambling on about “oppression” when they’ve never known anything but liberty.

Am I off-topic? I guess that’s just one of my bugaboos.

The point is, I’ve never known anyone who stood apart quite like that. I may have been an outsider in my hometown, but I was never the lone dolphin in a kingdom of sharks.