The Story of Drawingpoem

One evening during my last year at Rhode Island School of Design in 2017, looking at some images of cows, I immediately thought of the cows in my childhood and felt immediately reconnected with them -- my dear childhood friends who had calmed me down when I was a kid. This familiar spirit in their beings gave me the hinge to drawing them and draw in one impromptu line. It was bold to me to let go of control yet I was fascinated by this impromptu and one-line drawing idea. Out of curiosity, I decided to record it to be able to observe how it emerges from the unknown. 

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I took several deep breaths until I was quiet and open to hearing the spirit of my childhood animal friends. Then my ink pen touched the rice paper. I was taken for a walk by one line. A walk after another until I felt the spirit has expressed itself in full and precision. One of the drawings created is what you see now in the DrawingPoem logo.  

After creating these drawings, I still felt it wasn't enough to communicate with them. "I've got to talk to them!" I strongly felt, "they're listening." Then I started talking to them and recorded my voice again and again until it precisely spoke my heart and I felt my animals were heard. The was born the poem: "I Need to Talk to My Animals."

Instinctively I combined this audio poem with the drawing video, something clicked and finally, I felt at peace knowing I had reached my animals and they heard me in spirit. This experience has transformed me. It enabled me to discover a new language and that has become my true mother tongue. It enables me to capture the spirit in precision that neither medium alone could achieve. I name this new language: DrawingPoem. The openness of the mind I experienced during the creating of Drawingpoems makes me experience being with what is. 

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It has transported me to the openness of the mind where I want to dwell forever: a boundless being beyond knowing. That experience of being what I'd love to share with the whole world.
 

Hina Cao

Hina Cao

Hina (Yu) Cao is an NYC-based artist who specializes in impromptu one-line drawings and Drawingpoems. She invented the concept of a Drawingpoem: a drawing/painting video with a vocal poem. 

She grew up in China and loves drawing since little. Hina is a spiritual being and endlessly curious since childhood. She is deeply touched by the ineffable beauty of daily life and capturing them with Drawingpoems. She is the author of the book "All That I love/ DrawingPoems." In 2018, she was a finalist in 4th Juried Annual International Exhibition "Show Your World." She's is a RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) alumna of Master of Architecture 2017. 

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