At the invitation of Dr. Norman Chiu, president of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association (NATMA), well-known artist Shee, a former pathologist, held a solo exhibition of his oil paintings in Washington, DC. NATMA held its 27th annual convention September 23-25, 2011, at the Rockville Hilton Executive Meeting Center, Maryland. Shee’s unique style of paintings has attracted as usual many art lovers worldwide.

For this exhibition, Dr. Shee personally brought 40 of his large-scale oil paintings in a trailer and drove 750 miles, across five states, from Chicago to Washington, DC. The paintings are part of the Shee Highland Musée’s collection. Shee made the journey to participate in a cultural exchange. He was collaborating with NATMA because of its unequivocal support and love for Taiwan, to promote the arts, and they dream about the plan to open an Art and Culture Park in Taiwan.
Because they are from a developing nation, people of Taiwan shall have the resources to work together to unite ideals of life as a new frontier. NATMA believes that Taiwan medical professionals must be actively involved and promote the humanities to integrate medical and artistic exchanges.
Among the highlights of the exhibition were the presentations of composition, reading and singing of poems written by two outstanding physicians Dr. Paul Tseng (Mohe) and Dr.Luke Kao (Yoda). The affinity of poetry and visual art is obvious as presented by these two doctors. At the NATMA annual meeting last year in St. Louis, when the pair met Dr. Shee and saw his exhibition, they were moved by his paintings. As a result, they started to write and accumulated more than 60 poems so far to describe their emotions and feelings of what they had seen on those paintings. With Shee's paintings they often feel at home, but at times they could be carried away quite far.

For this year’s meeting, they chose 20 poems out of the 60 already written to share with fellow members. During the presentation they read the poems out loud, and Yoda played saxophone and guitar and sang. In response to this unusual entertainment, the audience was treated to a harmonic atmosphere with excitement and lots of fun. The audience could see how the paintings and poetry were bound together at an intimate level, to soothe the inner spirit. Inspired by Dr. Shee’s paintings which are enriched with special meaning, interesting stories and righteous philosophy, the two doctors’ streams of poetry have erupted like a volcano in a continuous flow.

Miss Island Chen, an art lover, saw several Shee exhibitions inTaiwan and Paris in the past and found that the artwork brings her endless joy. She was compelled to write a book, The Speaking of Painting. That was rewarding experience for her. Recently she read the poems written by Dr. Tseng and Dr. Kao, and was deeply moved. In the preface of their book soon to be published, she wrote:

I often heard people say that poetry was the most simple of words. In the old Chinese Five Character Poetry, a total of 20 words could describe the scenery so beautiful, yet be sentimental enough to result in endless deep thinking in one’s mind. So every word of the poetry could be spoken for volumes, reflecting one’s mind and soul with deep cultivation and intensive farming, resulted in a high yield. Truly every word in the poem is a gem. I do not write poems and have not read much of them either. However, when I come across a good poem, I’m delighted and enthused. Both Mohe’s and Yoda’s poems are special and fascinating, especially the short ones with high musical tones and rural flavor. They draw us back to our youth. Even their adapted names are interesting; Yoda meaning “wart person” and Mohe, “crab”, related to their past experiences as a young boy. One can imagine they are extremely talented individuals with very high spiritual and cerebral levels. People often say the higher cerebrality, the more innocent. My favorite are those poems which reveal a child’s innocent and compassion. They convey desires similar to Shee's paintings advocating love, peace and hope. I saw the photo of the trio, each showing one leg with distinctive cowboy boot, young and energetic. I think they are adorable as old saying the poem is the poet, the poet is the poem. It is so true.”

The poet is destined to meet with the painter. When music complements art, the partnership yields splendid results. The naturally bounding friendship by a multilateral culture exchange can improve mutual understanding on both sides of different societies. It can also add value to the convention and exhibition of the arts as well.
Dr. Shee practiced medicine for 30 years before picking up a paintbrush. That was 18 years ago he ended his medical practice to devote himself to creating art on a full time basis. Today he has studios in Chicago, Paris and Taipei. He studied three different cultural backgrounds: Europe, Asia and North America which form the essence in and influence his art. He established Shee Highland Musée and Sculpture Garden. Shee's paintings include figurines, landscapes, impressions and abstract. He has exhibited his art in Paris, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Argentina and other places, in more than 50 exhibitions. His audiences show admiration for him and appreciation for his art. The art lovers in Washington DC were pleased to view Shee’s exhibition and support him in his dream of creating an Art and Culture Park in Taiwan.