This article about Chinese brush painting and Toronto-based artist William Ho brought back childhood memories of taking the 505 streetcar down Dundas to my painting and calligraphy lessons at Ming Ming Kids Club on Spadina.
I remember the sense of independence and freedom I felt that my mother allowed me and my siblings to travel the distance alone by streetcar and then walk from Dundas to almost Queen along Spadina when we were so young…I must have been about 10 or 11. Nowadays, I don’t think any parent would allow their child to travel too far from their sight…the city was a safer, kinder place back then.
When I was a kid, China Book Store on Gerrard Street was one of my favourite places in the world. I loved to browse the cute stationary on display there. I still have the Little Twin Star lead pencil set that my parents bought for me….and the Leslie Cheung music tape that my grandfather gave me because my dad wouldn’t allow us to listen to pop music…
One of the aisles at the China Book Store stocked Chinese brushes, beautiful rolls of rice paper, watercolour paint sets and the cakes of black paint for calligraphy. I loved to visit this aisle to pick out the supplies for my lessons. My one specialty was painting bamboo stalks. It was the easiest thing to paint and was just about the ONLY thing I could paint well.
I’m rather inspired to look into one of Mr. Ho’s painting seminars at the ROM. I have no delusions of suddenly becoming an artiste…I’m far too critical for that…but it would certainly be nice to relive the sensation of holding a Chinese paint brush and dabbling in watercolours again…if nothing else, I’d just like to unroll that beautiful rice paper and feel its thick texture between my fingers…
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