Ling Zhou

Art Brokerage: Chinese artist Zhou Ling artist. Zhou Ling was born in Tian Jing, China in 1941. She studied Chinese history and art, as well as Western art from the Renaissance through Modernism at the Central Institute Nationalities in Beijing. Upon graduation, she married her teacher, Liu Bingjiang, causing a scandal at the time. According to official communist norms, a teacher is prohibited from having an intimate relationship with a student. Ten days after their marriage, Zhou Ling was separated from her husband and sent away to work in Yunnan Province -- an area in extreme Southwestern China, which borders on Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. She spent eight years living among the minority tribes. Zhou Ling has been influenced by ancient frescoes, painted pottery, and sculptures. She paints beautiful, earth mother-type women. Large and powerful, they more than confirm Chairman Mao's maxim that "women hold up more than half the sky. In 1991, Zhou Ling traveled to Hawaii. She had been commissioned to do a series of paintings for the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa. Zhou Ling was overwhelmed by the natural beauty of Maui. The tropical environment reminded her of earlier life in the verdant jungles of Yunnan Province. The landscape, its flora and fauna, and people who were Polynesian in appearance brought back memories of the ethnic minority groups of her homeland.