Artwork copyright Lucy Liu. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Happy Time Fish, 1986

Lucy Liu
(American, born 1926)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Happy Time Fish is part of artist Lucy Liu's body of paintings composed using traditional Chinese ink-painting techniques. Liu notes that fish are a traditional subject in Chinese art, and are symbolic of happiness, longevity, prosperity, children, and love.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Olympia School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Pacific Northwest artist Lucy Liu creates traditional Chinese brush paintings and calligraphic works.
Lucy Liu grew up in northeastern China, where she learned artistic calligraphy as a child. After 1949 she lived in Taiwan, where she studied traditional Chinese landscape and bird and flowers painting. Working as a researcher for an American expert on Chinese folklore brought her to Berkeley, California in 1973. Liu earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in art education from Eastern Washington University in Cheney. She taught art at Seattle-area community colleges. In 1983, she founded the Northwest Chinese Art Society to promote Asian art in the U.S.
In 1989, Lucy Liu was honored with a Washington State Governor's Heritage Award as a "Washington State Living Treasure" for her work as an artist, an art teacher, and a promoter of Chinese art, both within and outside of the Chinese-American community.