Name/Title
Francis Li - The Red Vase - Western Park ApartmentsDescription
This 81-year-old Shanghai native, whose work is frequently honored in the
AWE celebrations, arrived in the U.S. in 1991 with his family, anxious for his two children to get a good education. He’s proud that they did just that.
Francis smiles when recalling his younger days in San Francisco when, after working all day at the post office, he would hop on the bus to the local park to umpire for the city’s slow-pitch softball games. He’s been an avid baseball fan his whole life, as a coach in Shanghai, when he rooted for the Yankees and Red Sox, and now for the Chicago Cubs and the Giants.
Art, he says, has given him a new appreciation of nature. “Before, when I went to the park I would see only trees and a river. Now, after painting I see the green in the sky in the early morning and at sunset.”
Francis uses his left hand to hold his impaired right hand to paint and he still insists on setting up his own work station in the art room. He says painting helps him forget his pain. And he has this wise advice: “Don’t give up. Enjoy life every day. Pray; thank God and everybody for what you have.”
