My grandfather, I-Hsiung Ju, passed away in 2012. When he was alive he was an artist and a teacher and supporter of the arts . Born in Jianyin, China, he later became an Emeritus Professor at Washington and Lee in the United States of America. Because of this, he lovingly and creatively blended two worlds of style, technique, idioms to produce a unique form of painting that is both modern and traditional, Eastern and Western.

While the family was morning my grandfather’s death, a malfunction of a heater engulfed my grandmother’s house. Almost all of the paintings were destroyed, burned, charred, and blackened into a crisps. It was a devastating loss as I still remember the hours upon hours my grandfather meticulously painted these works with such great, passion, patience and care.

Our family’s trauma — both the death of my grandfather and the subsequent fire –inspired this online project today. The Art Farm will house a gallery of his only surviving works and a prints’ shop showcasing his destroyed works. When he was alive, my grandfather took digital copies of all of his work. That is why, we will be selling the prints of his beautiful paintings that no longer exists. The original works may be incinerated; yet, with the help of the miracle of technology, it is resurrected once again today so you may all appreciate their beauty and own a piece if you so choose.

According to my grandfather, “a Chinese artist is not only a painter, but also a poet and a philosopher.” Living up to this mantra, his paintings are representations of his life fully lived and his beautiful worldview. They are lessons in living and cultivating a deep communion with nature. He drew on traditions in Chinese painting, Chinese poetry, Confucian philosophy, and Christianity. When he died, these paintings were me and my family’s most treasured possessions and I hope they will someday be your heirlooms as well. My grandfather, who suffered and fought in the Sino-Japanese war also said, “Make Art, not War” and i know that he thought of beauty as something like peace and love to be spread to others and not kept to himself.