Emilie's Wall Graffiti Portraits

Emilie often sends photographs to share with her father, which feels truly fortunate. Recently, she sent several of her personal wall graffiti portrait creations from London, transforming portraits of her close friends. Those familiar with her circle of artist friends will intuitively understand these portraits. Emilie graduated from graphic design school and now works in commercial and window display design in London. Since childhood, she has excelled at pencil portrait drawing. She draws with great delicacy, vividness, and realism. Drawing with a pencil is like her enjoyment of playing the flute—it requires patience and meticulousness and is highly technical. Often, a warm feeling shines through her drawings. These wall graffiti portraits are her recent attempt: concise and powerful blue-and-white graphics, vivid and full of personality and feeling. Each portrait is marked with a large initial of the person's surname beside it, showing that friends are indispensable in life's journey and deserve to be cherished. Sharing this here with all blog readers.

Emilie is no one else—she is either an extension of her father or an incarnation of art, having exuded a unique temperament from very early on, which I deeply relate to. Since childhood, she has been quite quiet, often with friends coming over to the house without realizing there was a child at home. From a young age, she enjoyed reading, drawing, listening to music, playing instruments, collecting things, and playing house. The seed of art was sown early, active in the realm of art even in her mother's womb, joining us to view exhibitions, listen to music, and discuss art—she seemed always present. Environment shapes art, and art also shapes environment. Art can be said to be innate, but it is not absolute nor unique; it absolutely requires cultivation and development.

Emilie not only enjoys drawing but also loves music. It seems destined that she would choose a lifelong path among these, and art has become the inexhaustible source of her life. Drawing is purely personal, especially with an artist father who can inspire at any time, often taking her to various exhibitions large and small, discussing contemporary art trends, guiding and developing her energy and insight through careful care and encouragement. Music was left to her mother's instruction, outside my jurisdiction; I could only patiently accompany her learning, which also achieved my own musical initiation and education, leading me into the world of music. From childhood, she was fascinated by the flute, intuitively wanting to play it—though she could have learned violin or cello, since her mother's family has a musical heritage. Her maternal grandmother played beautiful piano, other relatives were violin professors, her eldest uncle was a violinist in the Paris Municipal Symphony Orchestra and a violin teacher at the Paris 5th Arrondissement Conservatory, and her aunt was a cellist in the French Radio Symphony Orchestra. With such convenient family background and conditions, learning piano, violin, or cello would not have been difficult.

Little Emilie, for some reason, became obsessed with the flute. We truly did not know why. Very early, we hired a tutor specifically to teach her flute, starting with a short plastic flute at the 13th Arrondissement Conservatory from age five, then moving to wooden recorder. By chance, she met a female flutist singer from Madagascar who brought her into the dream world of the magic flute. Thus, from the small fingers on the piccolo to the freely extended long flute, she progressed level by level into its realm, through exam after exam. Music accompanied her growth; even under the pressure of middle and high school academics, she remained dedicated to practicing the flute. In high school, she participated in the Monet High School symphony orchestra, performance after performance, test after test, finally advancing from beginner to advanced class, taking over a decade to earn her advanced class diploma. Of course, during this period, she attended music camps every summer, progressing from student to eventually becoming a teaching assistant. Music became the core of her life. Like attracts like, so almost all her friends are artists, mostly musicians, along with dancers and theater friends, etc.—this became another family in her life. Music made her more at ease and fulfilled.

After high school, she entered design school to study commercial graphic advertising design. Emilie continued to play music, already quite professional. For decades, as consistent as ever, she practices her beloved flute daily. I, a layman, have gradually been initiated, and music has become an indispensable spiritual nourishment in my life. For every exam or concert, Dad always listens with pleasure—not only encouraging but also dancing to the music's melody, intuitively understanding, with music fermenting in the heart, opening alternative insights and perceptions in my life. Also grateful for my daughter's various shares, allowing Dad to continue growing throughout life. Grateful—having a daughter in life is already heart-satisfying; this is what is called fulfillment.