School of Shaolin Paintings

I created these four scroll paintings as well as worked on a wall mural to help decorate the School of Shaolin, a Kung Fu school north of Minneapolis. I tried to focus on the main styles this school of traditional Chinese Kung Fu emphasizes as well as give a feel for their ideals. Specifically they focus on Northern Shaolin and Seven Star Mantis Styles but also have some Tiger and Crane styles as part of their training as well as tumbling, wrestling and traditional weapon forms. Each scroll painting features one of these styles: Northern Shaolin, Mantis, Crane and Tiger styles. The wall mural on the other hand depicts three scenes meant to symbolize a student coming to train (center image), the skills they have yet to achieve (left) and the skill they achieve after training (right). The same symbolism is a part of the training as well as students strive for things yet to come and things they have mastered. I used watercolors for the scroll paintings and fashioned the materials to make them. I used acrylics on the wall murals and aimed to keep them more monochromatic to offset the dynamic color of the watercolors.

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