In Feburary 2024, He E, expert advisor of the National Urban Sculpture Arts Council, granted an exclusive interview to reporters from China News Service. [Photo by Li Yalong]

The silver-haired sculptress, He E, is always seen drawing drafts, writing notes, or sculpting at her desk. She feels everlasting vitality through artistic creation.

He is the author of "Yellow River Mother", a city sculpture of Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province.

The 87-year-old is the first generation of female sculptors of New China. She has been working with scaffolding, mud and stone for seventy years, creating countless exquisite sculptures.

Curiosity plus courage

"I have loved painting since I was a child. My parents were close friends with the outstanding artist of Chinese painting, Zhao Wangyun, and I have been leaning toward the area under their influence. I used to copy the masters and paint on my own ideas obsessively." He said, "My relationship with art is an innate love."

In 1952, the 15-year-old He was admitted to the sculpture department of the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. From then on, she began her own career in sculpture art.

Talking about her transition from painting to sculpting, He concluded that it was because of her "curiosity and courage". She said: "I saw that there were no female students studying sculpture, so I chose this major." What she didn't expect at the time was that this choice would become a lifelong one.

Learning sculpture is a hard job. He recalled that she often had to dig and smash mud, but she didn't get bored. She said: "When I was young, I was full of curiosity about everything.”

After graduating from university in 1955, He was assigned to teach in a college. In 1962, Chang Shuhong, then director of the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute, wanted to select several teachers to work in the institute, and He was finally one of them.

"I originally thought I would go there for four or five years -- never thinking to stay for a dozen years,” He said, “these twelve years became an important cornerstone of my subsequent artistic creation.”

File photo shows He E copying Dunhuang sculptures at the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute. [Photo provided by Gansu He E Sculpture College]