Fu Lien

4• ISSUE September 2009

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DISHMANDIRECTOR FU LIEN BLENDS EAST,WESTCULTURES

Story and CONFUCIUSSAID,“THESCHOLAR whocherishes the photos by love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a schol-

Andy ar.” FuLien,aTaiwanese artist, writer, educator

Coughlan andart historian, certainly believes in getting out of her comfort zone. “There is a world beyond the world,” she said.“One of my students said I am very artistic about the way I practice my life. I don’t know whetherthat is good or bad, but I’m very spontaneous—sowhatever comes along, I follow that.”

Fuisdirector of the Dishman Art Museum at Lamar University, a position she has held for two years. She moved to America to study in the early ’80s, earning her degree and her master’s in art the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

“In my generation of Taiwanese college students, if they have a littleambition, they want to move away and study abroad,” she said. “England and America is the top choice or, if you know the language, youcangotoEurope. There are not many opportunities for art graduate studies in Taiwan, so we often come to America.”

Aftergetting her master’s, Fu returned to Taiwan where she taught for five years and worked in a modern art museum for three. Shereturned to New York after she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship at Parsons design school, where she earned her doctorate inart history.

Hersenseofintellectual curiosity led her to leave the comfort of herposition in the Big Apple for the unknown of the Lone Star State.

“I knew nothing about Texas and it is good to explore,” she said. “A lot of my graduate colleagues don’t want to move away from New York — (they) just teach here and there part time. I wanted to have a full-time job and engage real academia.

“I am a supporter. I want to support people, I want to educate people,Iwant to relate to people, not just be a self-indulgent artist.”

Afterarriving at Lamar, she quickly became impressed by the area’s vibrant arts scene.

“It is as lively as New York in many ways; not in geography, New York is very vertical and here it is horizontal, but when you go to a little niche here and there, you always get surprises,” she said. “In New York, you go one block and you find surprise. Here, you drive one hour to find surprise.

“Our scene here is really lively. I find I am going to openings every weekend. People are really active. Itis not the laid-back South I expected. I think Texas is special South because of its adventurous spirit.”

While at North Carolina, she met her husband Te-cheng Lien who was already an established artist and has exhibited at the Venice Biennale. The couple hasason, Jen Alan, who is also an artist.

“Ithink what I find hard in an artist family is to find a supporter,” she said. “Everyone has to be engaged in their own work. The three of us, we can fight a lot. But when we go to a museum we calm down and just engage in art. Then we find such a moment for sharing.”

Shebelieves that art can help center us in an ever more hectic world.

“We shouldn’t feel lonely, because we have good art with us,” she said. “There’s a transcendence. Of course, art comes from people, but they are too complicated or have too many earthy binds. Life is very confusing and you need to look for that symbolic moment of joy or transcendence. I think art provides that.”

Fuoriginally planned to major in English but soon found her interest drawn toward the art club and artists association when she was in college.

“Ihave more passion for art,” she said. “The Taiwanese education system is very rigid and once one chooses a major, that’s where one stays. The American system of freedom really helped me start my passion.”

Shesaid she jokes with her students that art is easier than studying English because, “you have to read a novel in a week and I cannot handle that.”

Inhindsight, despite her initial choice of study, she feels she was destined to be in the arts.

“In my older age, I really reflect on the third element, which is the mystical,” she said. “My father passed away in an accident when I was 19, and that’s the time I really found that art was my only place to escape. I was drawing with my sister in a studio near my home in Taiwan-Taipei and I suddenly felt, this is the thing I have passion for — I can sit there for hours and draw. For reading, I can only sustain one or two hours. So that’s the time I discover my passion for art through the studio experience.”

Herpreferred medium is collage, but she said she has focused more on her role as an educator than as an artist over the past few years.

“Istarted out as a painter — I’m a medium-good one, not highly talented, I think — then I find collage ismybest method,” she said, adding that she could fit it in around her role as wife and mother.

“Ifind the flexibility of the material really liberatedme,” she said. “People tell me it’s a female consciousness work. Then I started to think about my female self very late in my life and that led me to study feminism when I came back to the U.S. in the early ’90s.”

Fusaidthat Tapei and New York are similar in that they are busy, crowded cities. After being comfortable with city life, she is now enjoying the peace of the countryside.

“Actually, as a little kid I hated the big city. I really enjoyed nature,” she said. “It’s a surprise; 15, 16 years in New York shaped my adult life. But as I reflect, that was really important. If I don’t shape

Fu Lien is the director of the Dishman Art Museum on the Lamar University campus. She is an artist as well as being an educator. Her collage, “Childhood,” is pictured opposite.

myself in that art and cultural environment, my knowledge and exposure of art is somewhat limited.”

She encourages her students to travel and broadentheir horizons. She said that when she was young she thought only of Taipei and staying there in her comfort zone with her family. But now she likes to try new things.

“In my teaching it’s the same,” she said. “Something interests me and that comes in. It’s spontaneous; it’s not like I have a contrived plan for a particular thing. I am open to possibilities.”

She paused for a moment, then laughed as she said, “But getting old, it’s a little bit scary if you are open to too many things.”

Fusaid that her responsibilities and teaching duties have led her to put her art on the back burner, although she expresses her creativity through her interaction with her students.

“There was a stage in the ’90s when I was a lot more productive,” she said. “Now I have a lot of work that is not finished and ideas I don’t have time carry out.

“Actually, I’m not ashamed to tell my students I am a failed artist. At this age I feel I could have been agood artist…but I was always teaching. I need to serve the people. At this stage I am OK with myself. It gives me a broader view to look at art.

“Many artists I know do not want to see beyond their own orientation of art. That’s also good; sometimes they are great artists. But then it’s hard to deal with other facets of life. Right now I define my role as educator and that’s fine with me.”

Besides, she sees everything she does as related.

“In the past I have ambivalence,” she said. “People often say only if you concentrate on one thing can you get successful. But eventually, every experience benefits you. And it’s all art.

“We should question those words. What is success?”

When she first came to the Dishman, she felt as