KAMPALA (XINHUA) – In one of the paintings, Edward Kamugisha Ssajjabbi tells a story of the Beijing Winter Olympics as the world combats the COVID-19 pandemic.

The art piece also shows three people pushing the coronavirus into fire as a scientist does research. It also shows a lamp, signalling light of life, and modern buildings portraying Beijing. The Great Wall of China features in the background.

This is one of Ssajjabbi canvas art pieces that portray the relation between China, Africa and the world.

Born in Kabale, a remote hilly southwestern district of Uganda, Ssajjabbi has through persistence used his talent to reach the international scene.

On the journey to the global scene, Ssajjabbi has faced several successes and hardships.

As a little boy, Ssajjabbi used to frequent his father’s shop where a painter showcased his works.

“I admired the way he was doing them and loved to assist him like in case of picking items closer to him during the execution process. Later on when he had left, I started to frequent our bar with papers and pencils copying what he did,” Ssajjabbi, who is also an academician, told Xinhua.

“This forced me to start discovering colours especially using sweet potatoes and bananas for white, smashing batteries for black and even using earth for different colours. This is how I found myself into art,” he added.

Years on, Ssajjabbi has been able to study right from diploma level as a fine art teacher to now pursuing a doctorate degree in Design and Visual Culture.

“I have done several art exhibitions both sole and joint on local, national and international levels, which have continued ushering me into art and its benefits,” he said.

Ssajjabbi not only teaches art at Kabale University in the southwestern part of the country but also does canvas painting for commercial purposes. He does not have a proper art studio but uses one of the rooms at his residence.

His paintings are mostly about tourism, life in rural Uganda and culture. Most of Ssajjabbi’s clients are foreign tourists who throng the region to watch Mountain Gorillas.

VENTURE INTO CHINA

While Ssajjabbi has travelled the world because of art, his first venture into China was in 2019 when he was invited to attend the Eighth Beijing International Art Biennale.

The Beijing International Art Biennale, which has taken place since 2002, promotes global harmony through contemporary artwork exhibitions. More than 100 countries are represented at the Biennale, with more than 5,000 artists showcasing their visual artworks.

Early this year, Ssajjabbi attended the ninth edition of the Beijing International Art Biennale virtually.

He said the Biennale is important to African artists because they showcase their art together with artists from across the globe.

“There are many artists from different countries worldwide who take part in this Biennale and by doing this, African artists are exchanging their culture with the rest of the world through visual communication,” he said.

“Africans will also increase their scope of understanding by sharing different approaches in execution processes of the art forms,” he added.

Ssajjabbi argued that China is also understanding more of other countries’ culture through visual communication.

He said because of the 2022 Biennale, he has been invited to China’s Taiwan and Senegal in west Africa.

Back home, Ssajjabbi is sharing his China experience with his students at Kabale University.

Through art, one can appreciate and also inspire others to love their culture, said Ssajjabbi.

“Chinese have preserved their culture, which they are sharing with the rest of the world through art, therefore we need to benchmark and follow suit,” he said.

Ssajjabbi argued that art is a key component in the development of a country.

“In almost every industry in a country, art is applied to promote development. In engineering, for fabrication to take place, one needs sketches and drawings as sources of inspiration, no known culture so far which exists without clothes and this is fashion and design,” he noted.

“In hospitals, ceramics is used to produce bone part to replace broken ones and even there are teeth which are made of clay. Art is a precursor to development, there is no development without art,” Ssajjabbi added.

Ssajjabbi is optimistic that within the next five years he will complete his doctorate degree in design and visual culture. He hopes to use the knowledge generated to guide students at higher levels of education especially in research.

He said he will also use the knowledge acquired to improve his artworks especially paintings.

TAIYUAN (XINHUA) – “Every step I took was as if I were treading upon the points of sharp knives, which was a feeling shared by the little mermaid in Hans Christian Andersen’s story.

I wondered if I was also a sea princess,” Zhang Junli laughed, recalling the time when she was able to walk.

Zhang, 44, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of six and lost most of her joint functions by the time she turned eight.

With worried parents and growing tired of being confined to her bed all day, Zhang decided to take back her childhood hobby of drawing.

“I realised that the most miserable life is not being occupied by endless work but idling the days away,” Zhang said.

The journey to becoming an artist was not easy. Zhang’s joints and fingers were entirely stiff and she could only wedge the brush between her thumb and index finger, angling her shoulder and adjusting the pressure she applied to the canvas.

Used to lying on her right side, Zhang found it hard to reach her paintbrush to the lower left corner of the canvas as she was unable to move the canvas at will.

She racked her brain, eventually deciding to practice drawing with her left hand.

“I was disappointed and often burst into tears when the canvas was spoiled by my inability to control the paintbrush,” Zhang recalled. She still runs into difficulties occasionally when she draws long lines, even after more than 20 years of practice.

As a fan of animated films, Zhang was drawn to the stylised eyes, hairstyles, and costumes of the characters, and replicated them on canvases.

Unexpectedly, her work was published in a local sci-fi magazine. Zhang’s parents were thrilled, showing off her work to others.

“Since I became ill, my mother was in low spirits and I aspired to make her feel proud of me,” Zhang said.

Zhang has since determined to become a professional cartoonist.

Gradually, she found that she was unable to paint many scenes she had envisioned as she had never received any professional training. In 2004, she was unhappy with a painting she had spent six months working on, and this crushed her confidence and dreams.

In 2005, her parents bought her a laptop. Zhang gradually emerged from her slump and began to write online. Like painting, reading books and writing worked to shield her against loneliness and illness.

“So many stories come to mind every day, and when I can’t draw them, I write them down,” Zhang said. She has written four online novels and an autobiography titled My Existence.

But she still couldn’t give up her dream and decided to start her formal training with basic sketching at the age of 31, through online courses.

After practicing sketching for five years, Zhang dabbled in oil painting. She couldn’t go out to see the world, so she drew using her imagination and through photos.

Her favourite work is one of a little girl running with passion on the Chaka Salt Lake, known as China’s Mirror of the Sky. She named it Aspiration.

“The little girl is me,” Zhang said.

She now runs an online store, Lili’s Easel, where her works are available for sale. She has sold more than 200 paintings to date.

VALLETTA (XINHUA) – About 300 people from 60 countries are touring the world on board the largest-ever floating book fair to spread the joy of reading and bring hope and help to the needy.

This is the mission of Logos Hope, a 132-metre-long ship that was placed into service in February 2009. It entered the Valletta harbor in Malta on July 12, where it is docked until the end of the month for bookworms of different ages to enjoy a world of books.

The crew members, from captains and chefs to those responsible for stacking the thousands of books on board, are all volunteers.

On offer are more than 5,000 titles of books, mostly in English, that cover a wide range of subjects including science, sports, hobbies, cookery, arts, languages and religion. College coursebooks on languages, mathematics, geography and history can also be found on board.

Although officially registered in Valletta, the vessel spends little time there, moving instead from port to port, so that the crew can share knowledge and help local communities, media relations officer Sebastian Moncayo told Xinhua during a tour of the vessel.

After Malta, the boat will sail to Albania and Montenegro in the fall, then may continue its tour further on to Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan in the winter.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, the crew was not allowed to disembark for 122 days, Moncayo said.

The pandemic also slashed the boat’s income, mostly derived from selling books they buy for a fraction of the market price from donors. An entrance fee of EUR1 (USD1.02) is applicable for visitors aged between 13 and 64.