Who are the Hakkas?

The Hakkas are a unique ethnic group of "Han" Chinese originally active around the Yellow River area. They are thought to be one of the earliest "Han" settlers in China. One theory has it that many of the early Hakkas were affiliated with the "royal bloods".

A county side with many culture and history nicknamed as Formosa island–Taiwan.

This was where I was born, a childhood with many desirable dreams, filled with plenty artistic ideas.

Furthermore, my love of art had lead me to share my creative creations and experiences with children’s around Taiwan and Queensland, Australia. Nevertheless, it had also helped guide me to find my focus on children art education as my career; this had taken a big part of my life. My interest continues to grow and drives my enthusiasm towards an endless learning, which brought me passion and enjoyment of the stuff I do.

Furthermore, this enjoyment and passion I have lead me to meet new people and experience many different types of art; hence, made me love art more. By integrating with various feel and views on art, I value and appreciate all the diverse aspects I learned from the past and current, classic and modern, realistic and abstract, visible and touchable etc…

All of these colors splashed in my life and has built a solid and unique bridge in my life that is leading toward the dream I had in my childhood.

About Me Irene Wu I liked to stare at walls when I was little – brick walls that ran the length of a

meandering terrace in my hilly home town near Taipei. Weathered by tropical rains, they showed ochres of different shades, and their heavily-textured surface often reminded me of an old grandpa, who was watching the world going on in front of his eyes, smiling mellow in the evening glow. Behind the walls, grown-ups were preparing a meal, children playing hand games, family elders quietly discussing important things. Childhood memory was woven into a saffron mist.

And the memory lapsed abruptly with a long jet lag that never seemed to have faded away. I found myself in South Africa, where I would spend the prime of my life, and where on a lonely afternoon I would be sitting hours on end speaking to the walls – walls without ears but having enough patience to listen. Desert breezes rustled and whistled through the edges of its corrugated iron panels, bringing in ancient messages from the tribes that had long been lost.

In contrast, a suburban wall in Brisbane could be anything ranging from a thatched fence to a stuccoed concrete block, but its rich tactile appearance never fails to inspire, and to provide an ideal backdrop for my daily reverie, where Li Ko-jan* would meet Claude Monet, where Zao Wou-Ki** would interact with Jackson Pollack… Since Malawi, the wall has no longer been a barrier. A wall, painted or bare, is a screen on which imagination shines and ideas crystallize.

Displayed here are a body of brushwork I finished during my studies at the Southbank Institute of Technology. Seeing them hang on the wall, I came to the sudden realization that for an artist, once you have found the right gumption, pigment would come naturally under your brush tips.

The Harvesting Nov5 The Harvesting Oil Paint On Canvas 25 x 18 This body of work, The Harvesting is a memory of my childhood. In Miao Li, Taiwan, far from

the busy urban city, at the bottom of the mountains was where I grew up. Watching my parents harvest day by day, playing by myself at the side watching the sun go up and go down. Tick tock tick tock, time flew by so fast that I never really could recall every single memory from my past. I actually got the body of work idea from a photo of bricks (as shown in my Art Diary). The bricks aren’t just normal bricks, but in fact, I used to sleep right beside them. Whenever I was upset, happy or some special event pops up, I would be like the cave man and draw on the rocks, bricks and walls. Although my father wasn’t too happy about it, but my mother motivated me and wanted me to draw more. This is because this was pretty much the only way I could express myself and have fun. It was an artistic side of me and I really enjoyed it. I guess I was born to study and do art to learn more about the culture/ history. This body of work will always stay in my heart and I discovered that art is the only way to help me express myself.

More Than Just A Wall Oil Paint On Canvas 25 x 24 It is more than just a wall. I slept with a wall for my whole entire childhood, I played with

the wall, I drew on the wall in my childhood. Like one of my artworks, The Harvesting, this artwork is related to my childhood memories. Nevertheless, this is my very first artwork, that’s why it’s so special to me. I got this idea from images of bricks, the colors and the surroundings of the bricks. It made me think back to what it was like when I was a child. I discovered my artistic talent when I was a child, and the passion I have for art. This was because I drew on the wall and bricks to express my feelings and like any other child, they love drawing, but instead of using paper, I used the wall in my room. This was because, my family wasn’t able to afford paper and paint/ pencils. But I made my own paint/ pencils by rubbing the bricks/ rocks together to form an orange powder (I’m pretty sure most people have tried this). I also got some extra art equipments from those who had a wealthier environment, their spare equips. This body of work is a really sentimental artwork of mind. It expresses my feelings of my past, reminds me of my childhood and it will always represent how I feel and help remind me of what I did in my childhood. I used oil paint on canvas to express the feelings I have for this body of work – More Than Just A Wall.

Hakka Style House – Round Earth Building

Hakka Style House II

Hakka Style House III

Inside of Hakka Style House

Chinese New Year Celebration

Later Stage Hakka House

Hakka Style Bedroom

Old Fashion Hakka Clothes

New Fashion Hakka Clothes

Daily used Hakka Stuff

Hakka’s Main Crop – Tea Farm

Hakka Lady Picking Tea

Hakka Living area – Mountain side

Hakka Sculpture

World’s Hakka Capital - Meizhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meizhou