Tradition meets modernity(2)

A return to the beginning

It may not be easy to understand Karma's works, but once you see them, they are hard to forget. Through the years, this artist has accumulated and developed his own language and symbols that have distinguished him from other artists.

Born in 1963 in Yushu, Qinghai Province, Karma didn't start learning how to paint until he was 19 years old and was studying at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Like other artists, he first learned Western painting techniques, but later realized that he needed develop his own language and form to express his feelings and thoughts about the world.

"It was a hard process and required determination. For a time, I almost forgot how to paint," Karma said. While studying at the Minzu University of China around 1987, he gradually developed the style that he continues to use today.

Buddhist images such as "picking flowers and smiling" and the head of the Buddha, appear repeatedly within Karma's works. As such many people immediately assume that Karma's creations have their origin in the religious culture he grew up in.

However, Karma told the Global Times that these motifs are "the result of my conscious effort to retrace my roots" rather than any influence from his youth.

"I grew up during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and there were only broken walls and ruins left after the fatal destruction of temples and statues of gods," he explained.

However, this doesn't mean his childhood had no affect on his art, "I inherited my concern for nature from Tibetan culture. And I lived in an environment where old people liked to tell fairy tales to the next generation. These stories with their jumping plots and rich imagination inspired me very much."

While learning painting, Karma came to appreciate the works of Mattis, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, which can be seen from the trails of Impressionism, Cubism and Constructivism seen in his works, influences that he perfectly combines with tradition.

Extended art

Karma's artistic talents include many different forms of art, including oil painting, line drawing, etchings, bookplates, book design and so on. Over the past few years, he has held many exhibitions in these different fields.

One area where he has excelled is in the art of creating bookplates - small labels pasted into books to represent ownership. An expert in this field, he won fourth prize in the 34th International Ex Libris Competition in Finland in 2012, and is currently standing director of the Chinese Ex Libris Association.

He first came into contact with this unique art in 2010 while working for the Ethnic Publishing House, where he has worked for 20 years. At the time a friend mentioned that his paintings were the perfect fit for being adapted into bookplates and encouraged him to focus his creative energies in this direction.

"I knew little about it at first and they were too small, so I wasn't really interested," he said.

However, with encouragement from his friend, he designed several bookplates that took part in national competitions in 2010 and received several nominations. As he learned more about the art, he began to develop an interest in it.

As an art editor, Karma also likes to design books and has won many awards in this field. "I like book design because it is very similar to etchings, something I'm very familiar with," he said.

"With the spread of e-books, book design has taken on new meaning and demands more from book designers. In the future, books with beautiful content and fine designs might even become a piece of art or even a luxury item."