Flora Fong`s sixty springs

By:Enrique Atiénzar Rivero

The artistic creation takes a lot of time to Flora Fong. She comes little to Camagüey, on the other hand, when travels until here she doesn't know as taking off her relatives and friendships because unite it the memories that she stores of this colonial city where was born November 8, 1949.

Of its tight calendar always dedicated a space to respond to several questions. The interview lapsed in the room of its niece's home Liliana who is as cooperant of the health in Namibia in these precise moments, in the specialty of internal medicine.

The donated work to the provincial museum Ignacio titled Agramonte: The tropical fishbowl, doesn't escape from the first part of the fruitful conversation, of the artistic flight that contains, of the time used for its creation in the Antillean steel industry of Steel and the inconveniences for its transfer and definitive assembly in the threshold of the great colonial large house of the XIX century.

“The Chinese that it is good, say advise that in the houses people have fishbowls, if it is possible eight red fish and one black. The first ones represent the positive energy, the good things that always have to be in more quantity that the negatives.”

“It was the only way with which I had to thank to this city that formed me as artist, where I took the first steps, even, in the patio of the Museum drew and the professor of painting, Héctor Molné, gave us the landscape class.

When are you far from Camagüey yearning?

“Perhaps it is a mixture of yearning and of nostalgy. To me come to mind the memories of the childhood that unquestionably when one surpasses the fifty crowd together a little.

Will you continue conserving the identity of the ancestros?

“My Chinese ancestros is there, still, this even, has many anecdotes because I of girl said: allows to see if when it happens - from the house to the other block - they don't tell me anything, anyway until in the darkness they said: Chinese”. Flora smiles and she adds: “It was something nice.”

“I make honor to it in the investigation of my work since in my academic formation she had, mainly, a western and European basement for the teachings in the art schools, even, here when it was studied, the Greek statuary was imparted. But a moment arrives in that sit down the necessity to incorporate the elements of the Chinese culture and of the Asian in general.

“My work changes conceptually in a certain moment of my life among the years 1985 and 1986. It is really a very serious proposal and the ancestros for that time go leaving in the lienzos…I beging to study some Chinese to obtain a bigger coherence and understanding among what wanted, could make and the importance that I found in the Chinese calligraphy, in the videograms, pictograms and in its origins, even when I was in Japan and in other countries of Asia.

“From our terruño we can make very interesting things, because it stops our nationality the third component it is the Asian root; therefore I have taken it to me very seriously, I believe in that. For an artist the most important thing is to be convinced and to believe in that she makes and it is able to say.

“And more in these moments in that it is the year of the Buffalo of Earth. and I am Buffalo of Earth - because I was born in 1949 and Buffalo of Earth asks us to be very persevering, systematic and to work very firm from our point of view, it is the only way to leave ahead and it will mark us the rules to always try to be better and more alone with the work it will achieve.”

What did you find of new in this visit to Camagüey?

“Many things, mainly, if it is in the human aspect, people are much happier because the city is much prettier, in general sense; I found the rescue of that whole wonderful architecture, that attention to all the facades of the historical center and God willing, we could leave a little further on, because Camagüey deserves it and a tradition exists from a lifetime and it is necessary to rescue all that. Only the work will mark the steps.”

November eight are a doubly happy date for Flora Fong: completes six decades of life and second, happens awaiting becoming grandmother because Liang, her daughter, has painted in their stomach the image of a new creature that will bring family happiness.

The daughter and the son like a gift for her birthday-both are also artists - they maintain samples of their works in these days in galleries of the Cuban capital that has also welcomed Flora like one of their most brilliant guests.