AA Youth Artist on PBS: RAYMOND'S PORTRAIT 3/05/99 10:30pm EST
Moo Shu Gal
RAYMOND'S PORTRAIT
RAYMOND'S PORTRAIT tells the story of Raymond Hu, a 19-year-old
Asian-American whose haunting animal watercolor portraits have won him
acclaim in his native California. The 30-minute film, airing on PBS
Friday, March 5, 1999, 10:30 p.m. ET(check local listings), explores
Hu's art, motivation, family relationships and sometimes painful journey
toward his high school graduation in May 1996. In addition to his
artistic gift, Hu was born with Down Syndrome and has poor eyesight.
Hu's medium - traditional Chinese brush painting, which involves
applying Chinese ink and watercolor to
delicate rice paper - is a notoriously difficult one to master. Because
Down syndrome affects hand-eye
coordination, it's especially difficult for Hu. He started to paint when
he was 13, joining his parents and younger brother in a family activity.
After an unspectacular start, he began to excel once he turned his
attention to creating animal portraits.
His close-ups of animal faces, based on magazine color photos, are
remarkable for the depth of feeling
shown in the eyes. An environmentalist, Hu paints endangered species
primarily. "Every image he paints is
charged with his own feelings," says Hu's teacher, Lam-Po Leong, a San
Francisco-based master of brush
painting.
RAYMOND'S PORTRAIT follows Hu during his senior year at San Ramon Valley
High School in Danville, California, where he was the first special
education student to be fully mainstreamed. Today, Hu is a student at
Diablo Valley College, where he is studying to become a childcare
assistant.
The film explores the anguish that Hu's parents, Chenming and Margaret,
felt when they learned that their
first child was born with Down syndrome, and their decision to raise him
with the goal of a normal and
productive life. Hu's younger brother, Jason, talks poignantly about
having a brother who has Down syndrome.
Hu's work hangs in galleries throughout California, and he has had
several solo shows. _The Eyes of
Raymond Hu_, a book of his paintings, was published in 1998. In 1993,
his painting "Tiger" won first place over 1,000 entries in "A Very
Special Art Show," sponsored by the Sacramento Association for the
Retarded. In 1994, his "Elephant" won second prize in the California
Association for the Gifted Students'
Art Contest. Hu's work has been praised in the Congressional Record;
Exceptional Parent magazine has named him "one of 25 role models for the
next 25 years."
The producer/director of RAYMOND'S PORTRAIT, Donald Young, won a
regional Emmy for "Separate Lives, Broken Dreams."
Underwriters: Pacific Pioneer Fund, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Fund and
Zellerbach Family Fund.
Producer: KCSM San Mateo, California. Co-presenters: National Asian
American Telecommunications
Association (NAATA) and KCSM San Mateo, California. Executive producer:
Diane Nelson.
Producer/director: Donald Young. Music: Michael O'Neill.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/
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