A Dream of the Heart: Island Artists Jane and Linus Chao

By Jan Wizinowich

In the most positive sense, the Chinese saying “May your life be interesting” certainly applies to Jane and Linus Chao, island treasures who have been creating and teaching art for the last 50 years. Primarily watercolor artists on silk and paper, art has always been at the center of their lives, which they have shared with our island community.

A Journey of the Heart

Like lotus seeds arising from the murky chaos of post-World War II mainland China, Jane and Linus came separately to Taiwan to blossom into the artists they have become. Their journeys from northern China to Japan to Taiwan, and finally Hawai‘i Island have been steeped in art and multicultural experiences.

Jane spent her early years in Harbin, but lived in Japan from the time she was four years old until she was 12. While in Japan her talent was recognized. “When I was in Japan in elementary school the art teacher liked my work and that encouraged me. I was sent to a Japanese lady who paints Chinese paintings called Nan Ga, South Song Dynasty painting style. The Japanese came to China and brought that back to Japan,” said Jane.

Upon her return to Harbin in 1941, Jane resumed her art instruction with a Chinese teacher. When the war ended and with her father imprisoned in Siberia, Jane and her mother fled to Taiwan, where she met Linus. “I met him because I love art. He was in the art department at Taiwan Normal University, and he had an art show. I fell in love with his art and I married him. That’s how we started,” recalled Jane.

Linus, who grew up in Qingdao, China, started a career in art at an early age. “I’ve loved art since I was a young boy. Second year elementary, some naughty boys didn’t like to draw and when the teacher went to the office, all the people asked me to draw for them,” remembered Linus.

In 1949, as the communists were taking over, Linus was sent to Taiwan, where he completed his last year of high school. It took two years of teaching elementary school art before he was to enter the university where he met Jane. With a chuckle he recalled, “I wanted to be a navy officer but my math, physics, chemistry was bad.”

New Dimensions

While watercolors have been his main media, in 1959 Linus was selected to study animation in Japan. He joined the Tōei Studio in Tokyo and was introduced to a multimedia, collaborative process.

After a year in Japan, Linus returned to Taiwan and came to the attention of Father Phillip Bourret, who sent Linus to Disney Studios to continue his animation work with the caveat that when he returned he would teach animation and make educational films.

“At first I worked on Mary Poppins and after that they transferred me to Hanna-Barbera and I worked on The Flintstones and Yogi Bear,” said Linus. Upon his return Linus established the Kuangchi Program Services animation department, training personnel and gathering the necessary equipment to create animated films. “He is called the father of Taiwan animation because he was the first one to make animated films in Taiwan,” said Jane, who assisted Linus with the animation work.

When Jane arrived on Taiwan, bringing her background in Nan Ga and Chinese Gungbei style brush painting, she was looking to reconnect with art and took a class from a friend of Linus’s. “During this running around [before coming to Taiwan] I didn’t do any art, and then I met this guy and took a class from one of his friends and I developed my own style,” recalled Jane.

Hawai‘i Bound

A change in US immigration law that welcomed artists along with other professionals opened a portal for Jane and Linus to come to the United States. A desire to be in a multicultural setting, along with advice of friends from Hawai‘i they met in Taiwan, decided them on Hawai‘i Island.

“In 1969 we applied and within two months we got permission for the whole family, with four children, to come to the United States. I knew Hawai‘i was a beautiful place, singing, dancing. That’s the place I wanted to go,” remembered Jane.

The rich colors and welcoming culture of Hawai‘i inspired the Chao couple. Their distinctive artworks reflect their love of the natural surroundings of their adopted home.

“My own style—it’s not Japanese, it’s not Chinese, it’s not Western. Chinese and Japanese art is very serene. Not too much colors, but after I came here I saw so much color and I said, ‘Never mind, I’ll just paint the colors,’” recalled Jane.

Jane’s watercolors on silk and paper create a world of serene beauty rendered in deep intense color. To look at one of her paintings is to feel as though one has found the way into the inner life story of Hawai‘i’s natural world, so realistic it’s almost surreal.

Direct Link from the Heart to the Page

For Jane and Linus, art is a spiritual endeavor that has guided them in creating beauty and meaning in their lives and in the lives of those around them. Not long after they arrived in Hilo, Linus was invited to teach art at Hawai‘i Community College where, along with several international guest lecturer posts, he became a professor of fine art for 33 years.

Along with raising their children, Jane continued to paint and opened a gift shop on Banyan Drive where she exhibited both her and Linus’s artwork. She had her first art exhibit in 1976 at the Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy Gallery. After eight years, and with her children off to mainland schools, Jane closed her Banyan Drive gift shop.

Living in a neighborhood surrounded by schools, she began teaching after school art classes. “Now when I go out, I see an old man, bald, and he says, ‘Mrs. Chao, how are you?’ And I say, ‘Do I know you?’ And he says, ‘I was your student when I was eight years old,’” recalled Jane.

When Linus and Jane moved to their Studio Mountain View home that they designed and built, Jane taught art classes there and is still teaching. “I have a class of about 10 ladies, all my age, and we have a lot of fun,” said Jane.

Studio Mountain View, named for its awe-inspiring view of Maunakea, rests on four acres that include a large fishpond, teahouse, and a smaller lotus pond. In its entirety, Studio Mountain View and its surrounds are a philosophical metaphor, a testament to the deep connection to nature felt by the two artists.

“I carry a child-like heart, full of confidence as I experience life in art. One example is the creation and construction of our home and garden. I am experimenting with three-dimensional art by combining traditional Chinese garden landscaping with art using the practice of feng shui and the balance found in western aesthetics, with harmony and caring for the environment,” reflected Linus.

Unexpected Divine Inspiration

Linus has gathered experiences in a semiotic that combine learned techniques and theories with memories and experiences, creating a sense of divine connection to his subject. “There is much multimedia knowledge and work experience from photography and motion picture production that I have borrowed to apply in fine arts and the creative process of painting,” reflected Linus.

His paintings range from impressionistic renderings of hidden Hawai‘i treasures through memories of his childhood in wintry north China and travels in North America. “I have lived in Hawai‘i over 40 years; everywhere I look in the beautiful nature, I see subjects worthy of being painted. But what is unforgettable for me is still my childhood homeland, Shandong; the silvery winter snow often calls to me in my dreams.”

One of Linus’s paintings, Lotus in Winter, is a metaphor for his life. “My pond outside here has a lot of lotus. I feel sorry about the winter, my age, getting old. It comes from the mud. The mud is dirty but the lotus grows up over the water and becomes beautiful. A poor boy from a poor family still has a chance to go higher.”

His artwork ranges from dream images to capturing and communicating the essence of his subjects. Having previously done a portrait of John A. Burns, Linus was commissioned in 2017 to create a series of portraits of all the deans of the John A. Burns Medical School. These portraits reflect Linus’s careful study of his subjects to capture the spirit of the men.

Open Hearts

Jane and Linus have thrived in the inclusive spirt of Hawai‘i and have a cadre of fellow artists who join them in their many exhibitions. For the past alternating years, they have mounted a Linus and Jane Chao and Friends exhibit at the Wailoa Center in Hilo, and have taken collaborative art shows on the road to Honolulu, Japan, and Taiwan. Through their artwork and generosity of spirit, Jane and Linus have enriched the lives of all whom they have touched. ❖

---

Postscript: As we were finishing this story, we received news that Linus passed away on May 1, 2019. We are grateful to have captured his last interview.

For more information: bbmtview.com