HOT SPRINGS -- A woman in a purple hat and black jacket stands precariously in the narrow median on Central Avenue in front of the Arlington Hotel.
Traffic passes on the busy four-lane as she takes photos with her smartphone of Mother Nature, the cultured marble statue of the titular figure holding an urn with a child and a family of three deer at her feet.
The smitten photographer is visiting from Vermont and couldn't resist taking a picture of the statue, which is part of a fountain in the median.
"It's just so beautiful," she says, rejoining her friends.
As she and her companions walk toward the Arlington, the artist who created Mother Nature is in his studio and home just a few blocks down Central Avenue.
He is Longhua Xu, a 65-year-old Shanghai, China, native who came to Hot Springs in 1990 and has been a part of this city's cultural fabric ever since.
He's also a Natural State treasure.
In February, Xu was named Arkansas' 2019 Living Treasure by the Arkansas Arts Council.
"Longhua is a very active artist with a large body of work," says arts council director Patrick Ralston. "He's widely recognized as one of Arkansas' most sought-after artists. When we look for a Living Treasure, we look for someone who is building and expanding the portfolio of Arkansas art, and he certainly fits that description. He's hitting on all cylinders."
JoAnn Mangione, publisher of The Springs, a monthly Hot Springs arts magazine, nominated her friend Xu for the honor.
"His range of art is fantastic," she says. "He does wood work, sculpting, painting and his subjects vary so incredibly, from farmers market shoppers to exotic, beautiful figures. He is so talented."
Xu's nomination was approved by a panel of craft artists based on the quality of his work, his participation in community outreach and contribution to the field of traditional crafts.
WORKING FROM HOME
Xu's studio is the kind of place art school students fantasize about.
Located on the second floor of what was once the Central Hotel, it is more than 3,000 square feet with high ceilings, large windows and natural light. Works by the polymath Xu, ranging from wood and stone carvings to bronze sculptures and paintings in oil and acrylic, fill the space in a controlled-clutter sort of way.
Many of the paintings leaning against walls and furniture were shown in "Longhua Xu Paints the Soul of Arkansas," an exhibit from late last year at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
Xu and his wife, Shunying Chen, bought the four-story building 14 years ago and began restoring it for his studio and their home.
"It was in bad shape when we bought it," Xu says. "Each floor was rotten because the roof was leaking. The bank wanted to tear it down, but we said that it was too good to tear down."
On the first floor is retail space leased to the Artists' Workshop Gallery and a store called All Things Arkansas, an arrangement that helps Xu pay the bills and keep doing his thing.
"It creates money so I can make my own art," he says. "That's how I can do 40 large paintings in three years. An artist not only does art, but he has to manage, too."
Showing visitors around his studio, he points out carvings of figures from cherry, pine, black walnut and cedar as well as limestone and pink alabaster and paintings that range from portraits and landscapes to crowded party scenes.
HIS FIRST CRITIC
He has been around art almost all of his life. Growing up in Shanghai, he tagged along with his older brother, Binghui, to paint landscapes in a park. At 17, with the restrictions of the Chinese Cultural Revolution easing, he was among just 50 students chosen by the Chinese National Arts and Crafts Company to study traditional Chinese art. It was also where he met fellow art student Shunying.
"We were lucky," she says. "During the revolution, the art departments at the universities had closed."
She eventually took a job in an office before becoming a literature professor. She and Xu have been married for 39 years. Their son, Yang, is a Hot Springs doctor, while daughter Annie attends Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Shunying is his most trusted critic, Xu says.
"She always sees my work first, and if she says, 'No, that doesn't look right,' I listen very carefully because she is the one who loves me. If she says something is wrong, then something is wrong. She doesn't sugarcoat it."
Art school was just as intensive.
"We were training with a professor and master artists, studying only art for three years -- drawing, carving, sculpture," he says.
Xu was in his element. Here's a story from his first day in sculpting class.
The teacher told the students they would spend the first day making a simple, egg-shaped head with a neck and then left the class to its own devices.
"I thought, 'All day working on this? I can finish in 10 minutes,'" Xu says. "Everyone finished their steps and were gone. They don't want to do it anymore. I finished and just continued working on it."
In class the next day the instructor wanted to know who had done the completed piece.
When Xu 'fessed up, the teacher didn't believe him at first.
"He said, 'No, you're lying,' and wanted to know if I had done sculpting before," Xu says, adding that he had no sculpting experience other than a little soapstone carving.
At the end of the three-year class, a piece made by Xu was chosen to give as a gift to a visiting official from the Vietnamese government.
A POSITIVE ENERGY
In school he learned the skills needed to create, but it took time for him to find his voice.
"At the beginning, all you think about is technique. Then I met a literature professor who was talking about the history of art, Western art, Eastern art and the difference between them. It made me think that it's not about skill, it's about the artist and expressing your emotion, your philosophy, your ideas through your work. This makes a difference, first you just have the art form to create a thing, then you go to another level to express your idea."
In many of his figure carvings there is a sense of calm and tranquility. His sculptures often show action, such as Eternal Hope, the angelic figure releasing a dove to the heavens in front of CHI St. Vincent Hospital in Hot Springs or the charging bull he made for a patron's home.
"Sculptures have to be like an opera, very symbolic and overwhelming," he says.
His recent portraits and colorful crowd scenes are of regular-looking people, not slim models in Instagram-friendly poses. With a nod to one of his favorites, French post-impressionist Henri Matisse, Xu chooses to highlight the positive and leave darker subjects for others.
"I love Matisse. You can see I have lots of Matisse influence. He never made a war work. Everything was happy, peaceful and joyful. I want to project positive energy instead of bad things. We're in a society together, and I want to bring people positive energy and love."
For his paintings, he takes photos of scenes and people that strike him as interesting. Small Town Master Gardeners, a 48-inch by 60-inch oil painting, is the product of juxtaposing several photos he took of customers of all shapes and sizes at a Benton garden store. Look closely and you can spot his wife and son among the shoppers.
FAVORITE MEDIUM
When pressed for his favorite medium, he doesn't hesitate. "Carving," he says, "is like a high school sweetheart."
It was his woodcarving that attracted the arts council.
"The example of his work the panel had was a wood carving," Ralston says. "He has an eye for form that I think really grabbed the panelists."
Looking at a raw piece of wood or stone, he visualizes the figure he wants to coax from the object.
"You have to see it almost finished before you start working on it. You have to know. If you don't know, then you chop a piece off and it's gone. You can't put it back."
He has been making art for almost 48 years now, but that doesn't mean there's not more to learn. He still draws, and each Thursday night meets with a group of Hot Springs artists for figure drawing sessions.
"I love drawing," he says. "I still have to practice."
SHANGHAI TO HOT SPRINGS
Xu graduated from East China University of Technology and taught art at Shanghai University of Technology. He had several exhibitions in China, including one at the Shanghai Art Museum. In 1989, as part of a cultural exchange program, he came to America to teach at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. He emigrated to the United States that year under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Extraordinary Ability program, with Shunying following about 18 months later.
He did not tarry in Rochester. He'd heard Hot Springs was an artist-friendly spot and moved here in 1990. Added bonus: it was a lot warmer than upstate New York.
Of course, it's a lot different from Shanghai, a global trade hub more than 7,000 miles away from the Spa City with a population of over 26 million. Round up everybody in Arkansas and you've only got about 3 million people.
Longhua says his younger brother, the Chicago artist Longsen, can't understand why big bro would live in such a small town.
"I wouldn't trade," Longhua Xu says. "This is the life you choose, it's very peaceful and comfortable."
It also makes economical sense.
"I couldn't afford this space in Chicago or New York."
In 1992, Xu won a competition to sculpt what became Mother Nature, affixing his work in one of the most highly trafficked areas of town.
"People were trying to make the statement that we need a better downtown now," he says. "They wanted a monument sculpture for this."
Xu, always a fast worker, put together a design in just a few days and beat out 14 other proposals in a vote by the public.
He later received a letter from President Bill Clinton, praising the work and saying that it "should bring enjoyment to millions of visitors for years to come."
The lady from Vermont would have to agree.
Mother Nature is just one of several sculptures Xu has at spots across Hot Springs and around the state.
TREASURE
The Arkansas Arts Council, a division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, started the Living Treasure program in 2002. Last year's recipient was Fayetteville sculptor Hank Kaminsky.
A reception honoring Xu, who taught art for five years at Henderson State University, will be held at 5 p.m. May 2 at the Hot Springs Convention Center, 134 Convention Blvd.
So, does being a Living Treasure mean that Xu will have to show up at artsy parades and gallery ribbon cuttings?
Nah.
"It's not like being a pageant winner," director Ralston says with a chuckle. "It's just a recognition of his work and the fact that his work continues to teach and inspire other artists. He is far from done in his career. He continues to do art and inspire. We're looking back at his achievements, but we're also looking forward to his future work."
For Xu, the future is now. He's working on a study for a public sculpture of a dashing man on horseback honoring Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, and there is a trio of large paintings-in-progress inspired by his trips to a nearby rodeo.
And being the latest Living Treasure isn't going to his head. It's making him work even harder.
"It's an honor and it recognizes my work. It's pressure, too," he says. "Now I look at my work twice before I sell to make sure it looks like a treasure."
Style on 03/24/2019