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i have a show in new york coming up of the last emperor and his court -- his wives, the last empress, and the concubines and the eunuchs. the theme of subjugation of women and the repression and the patriarchy of society are problems i have been dealing with in my work. so i decided to use this group of photographs as a reference for my new paintings. in general, when i work with the photographs, i'm always fascinated

by the moment the photograph -- the particular photograph was taken. it's like a...a frozen moment, and i'm just taking my painting to find out a lot of frozen information. no matter what the subject matter is, they are very personal. you know, like you give birth to a baby. each one was born differently. you know, different circumstances, different gender, different personality. i had several, you know, ideas i project i want to say. i sort of, like, tonight, wanted to do a big head. also i have had a lot of women -- female images. this actually the last emperor, so maybe i should do him.

i'm going to turn the light down to see how it looks. i'm not copying a photograph. you know, everything, basically, just is captured by the moment of exposure. there's a clue of something, like tiny, tiny information hidden there. it's about how human beings respond to that camera. i think overall, we all find excuse to do things, to make a -- to write a novel, or to do a drawing.

and if i do a drawing of a, let's say, a flower, it basically has nothing to do with the flower. the flower triggers my desire to do something. being an artist is a full-time job. i think more than full time. you know, even some time when you sleep, you're still thinking about processing the ideas, almost like no beginning, no end. in 1966, i was in high school, ready to go to college, and the cultural revolution happened then, and for two years, no school, but revolution. and the middle school, high school students, college students, and professors -- everybody -- all the educated people -- supposed to go to countryside to get re-educated by the working class. but i never really, you know, got a chance to study art.

[ all speaking chinese ] liu: after i went to countryside, whenever there was a meeting, i did drawings and sketches of the villagers, and the landscape and different things. and because i could draw, could paint, i was asked sometimes to do this big propaganda mural. that was probably the first time i did public art, if you call it art. and finally, '72, i got chance, when schools were reopened, you know, i got chance to enter teachers college to study art. and when i entered school, i felt i must catch up because i missed so long to seriously study art. i put a tiny painting box, like this big,

and it has a little slide piece of board so i can paint. you can still probably see -- a lot has this kind of a, you know, tiny hole -- thumbtack -- and put on the board, and get a few tiny, you know, tubes of oil paint, and make the brushes very short. all put together very compact. put in my bag and pretend to take a walk, and when outside campus, sit down and start to paint. and i, uh, just kept doing this. at least one painting a day. it was like a goal, you know. nobody could bother me. i had some relationship with my work, you know. i could sit down and be by myself and do a landscape. i thought it felt great! and this is this very secret and sacred joy.

the kind of freedom i give myself, nobody else could give to me. i love myself to enjoy it, use it. three fujins actually are the three concubines of the famous prince yihuan of the ch'ing dynasty, which was overthrown in 1911. to me, the role of the concubines was not really much different than the prostitute, although they were royal women. i was drawn to the formal pose, their mask-like faces,

and the sense that the women have roles to fill, and make themselves up to play their parts. you know, sometimes one can get very intimidated by a new canvas. it's brand-new, clean, very well-made canvas. where should i start? i always like to use big brush, almost, like, to mess up first. then i'm not worried about it anymore. but i don't want to start with a lot of rules, a lot of limitations, a lot of hesitations of "too precious. oh, my god." every, you know -- the eyebrow, the tiny earring.

all of that i just don't worry about, you know. just start it and that will get me going, you know, move very fast. gradually, you know, in my work process, i experience more and more freedom. it's not foreign to me when i think really seriously that the way i was trained was not chinese traditional. we adopted russian socialist realism. the real chinese tradition, the landscape painters, some calligraphers -- a lot of them, they're pretty crazy. you know, they let the ink run, to splash the ink. some of them just use their hair, dip it in the ink, and then, you know, just going crazy. very much like the performance art here, i guess.

suddenly, i realize maybe that's part of me. still very, very chinese. very deeply rooted in some chinese traditional ways, in contrary to the russian socialist realism, although that's the way i was trained. after i started painting with the drips, made me more curious about my own work, because the next day, majority of the time, they always surprise me. because linseed oil, just like other oil -- it's not like water. it's thicker, you know. and so it's heavier. it doesn't drip that fast. it takes time. sometimes overnight.

some day, i was waiting. some day, it just, uh... no, wait -- oops! sometimes a very bad day, you know. just didn't go anywhere, so i... oops! sometimes a bad day turn out a pretty good day because i didn't know what i was doing, so i didn't care too much. i didn't pay too much attention. it work out fine. started not too bad, but i think i lost some energy.

sometimes you can only concentrate for so long. i guess this is for today. my husband is jeff kelley, art critic. and he really does his job, not just professionally in the art world, you know, but he does his job thoroughly, intensively at home. he criticize my work all the time. sometime i didn't even want him, you know, to give me feedback. he does anyway all the time. so, i think in general it has been very helpful, but sometimes it really can get on my nerves. well, criticism is a word that gets a bad rap.

it usually implies, you know, that you're being judgmental rather than, uh, interested. and you are judgmental sometimes. true, but that's the boundary that sometimes you have to be careful about not crossing. i'm very interested in hung's work. i've seen it for 10 years. i see it closely and intimately and often. and, um, it's hard to know what to do except to be interested in it, and to like it, and to talk about it, and to throw in your two cents. and sometimes they get thrown back out. [ speaking chinese ] liu: i just started yesterday. today i work little bit, not much, and her face -- still struggling, and background -- the relationship between the figures and background.

at this moment, i feel like to look at it. you know, just slow down this particular piece. i don't like to rush to a conclusion, so, "this is good, this is bad." and it's not bad beginning, but i need to work through it. i don't want to overdo it, but i know it has to be finished, so i feel maybe i should move to another painting. hold on. yeah, this is still clamped. liu: this is the painting i have finished, i don't know, maybe 50% or 60% or 70%. i can handle it, actually, if i just get this. yeah. thank you. liu: this is the last empress, and, of course, married to the last emperor. actually, i have a photograph of her. let me find -- right here. that's her.

she's beautiful, but also looks, like, so, uh, you know, indifferent, and remote. she's very fluid. almost -- i think it's almost like watercolor or rice paper. working with her face. painted it, wash away, painted it, wash away. and to that degree now i like a lot, because her face is very soft. beautiful but also -- and stable. almost like it can disappear any time. i started from the top, because eventually the paint with the oil will bring all the paints down to the bottom, so you get a heavier color, thicker color, on the bottom

instead of the top. this case, i look at the reference. the top of the photograph already kind of, like, overexposed somehow, you know, like, just faded away. so i like the quality. i did that on purpose this one. very, very light from the top, so it run down all the way. so her headdress, her jewelry, everything just embedded, almost, with the background. i could never imagine i could have done this in china, because of the way i was trained. i like to surprise myself. that's why i think it's a sense of liberation, of freedom.

another day, another dollar. another day, another penny, but i feel great. i was somehow energized by the other painting. sometimes i feel like the writer's block. i have a painter's block, too. i felt yesterday i just couldn't do this anymore. today i came in the morning, and somehow i just felt i changed my attitude. i was not too frustrated. also, i i felt i was ready this morning. it's good i don't have a phone here. i don't need the interruptions. the dog and the train sounds enough for me.

i want to finish this painting in time for the new york show. [ sighs ] hello. everybody, i'm home. okay. all right. how did you feel about what you did today? i'm proud of myself. i went back to the big painting, the triptych, today. i started to challenge, to confront the dragon today. the dragon ladies, actually, today. so who won? still there. you'll see.

the battle hasn't turned yet. it's the second day at gettysburg still. there's a sensibility in the painting itself -- it's like an extension of this color... liu: i used some birdcages in this group of paintings. the birdcage, for me, symbolize, maybe, the women in this paintings, their spiritual captivity, the loss of freedom. the women treated just like objects. maybe the objects, like the birdcage in this case here, like the embodiment of the women. man: the good news is that the mount is relatively universal, and they'll all be parallel lines. so you can switch them anytime you want. if you don't like the look, we can just change it. also i really want to see them hung there, and then i can make a decision.

yeah, it's pretty hard to make a decision with them on the floor. uh-oh. oh, my god! who did the installation? who did the installation? well? well? well? so what do you think?

liu: i remember that face probably. i painted it, washed away, painted it several times. also, i always do two things to my paintings. one is -- well, i did okay job, not bad, you know. some parts -- "how did i do that?" but also some regrets. "well, i could have done better that part. i could next time." i put it out, i think. i struggled a long time by myself on the ladder,

and tried to change things around, tried to lighten up, just did a lot of things. keep doing this push and pull. finally, i think it's okay. i'm glad that most of these paintings are already sold. i think overall you can't let that thought influence what you will do. you will become an object maker. you'll repeat yourself. you won't take risks. you'll basically stop. man: i don't know. i'm not sure. disintegrating, dissolving, changing... man: i'm curious about something. these are stunning, and it captivates you. and then you threw these in.

were you trying to say something? what were you trying to say? liu: i just -- i mention it's about something we're not normally aware of. you know, your body problem, and your -- what's really inside you, when we cover it up with make-up, with clothes, with, you know, a pose, we really create an image of ourselves. it's like a country, i think. it could be a metaphor for a country. we want to put a show in the window to show people we're doing great, but behind the curtain, you know, probably a lot of problems. okay, now it works. that makes sense. now it works? thank you. i just -- i don't know. i'm speechless. i really feel, you know -- i thank you, everybody.

and, uh, it's my exhibition, but without everybody's support, i don't think -- i wouldn't have done this, really. thank you very much. my dream was not too concrete, like gold or something. but i did sense i would develop myself here. i would see things so different than what i had experienced all my life in china. because i always wanted to be artist. i have been artist for years, so that's my ultimate goal, to become a better artist. i don't know how, but i knew i could. so with $20 and three big suitcases, i came to this country. i will be a better artist there.

-- captions by vitac -- burbank, pittsburgh, washington annenberg media ♪ for information about this and other annenberg media programs call 1-800-learner and visit us at www.learner.org.