1 . Many visual artists have a signature style, as unique and identifiable as a fingerprint. For Amoako Boafo, who often paints with his fingers, this seems doubly true. His distinctive paint strokes (笔画) combine the complex skin tones of his chosen subjects, many of whom are, like himself, Africans with global life experiences.
Boafo, whose first solo museum exhibition runs at the Seattle Art Museum, was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, and moved to Vienna, Austria, in 2014, where he ran into difficulties, with gallerists unwilling to show his works due to his focus on Black figures. He continued making an effort to create self-portraits (自画像) and people he knew or admired-African people and Black people who have African ancestry, painting a community of sorts during a time of hardship. He also developed his standout approach to figurative painting, which combines areas of bright and noticeable color with his soft and deep fingerpainting.
He began posting his art online and caught the attention of artists like Kehinde Wiley, the celebrated American artist. The word started to spread.
Boafo is now a global art star, with numerous shows at galleries and art fairs, working with fashion house Dior, and several paintings selling for over a million dollars. In 2021, with three of his paintings being launched into space by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ Kent-based spaceflight company, you might even say Boafo has rocketed to success.
And yet a recent phone conversation with the artist from his studio in Accra, which is once again his home base, revealed a well-mannered person who appreciated his success while pointing out all of the luck and preparation that led to it. Seeing so many of his paintings -created from 2016 to 2022-gathered together in an exhibition has helped him remember that “I did not ‘just happen. ‘I did not expect this success but I was hopeful and ready for it.”
1. What makes Boafo’s paintings different from other artists’ works?| A．His finger strokes. | B．His home country. ss-ess |
| C．His life experiences. | D．His traditional style. |
| A．By turning to celebrated artists for help. | B．By developing a unique painting style. |
| C．By running his art exhibition at home. | D．By working with local art galleries. |
| A．To indicate the price of space travel. | B．To show the value of Boafo’s works. |
| C．To introduce an international brand. | D．To tell us the advances in technology. |
| A．He is talkative. | B．He is patient. | C．He is determined. | D．He is humorous. |
2 . Walk around the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and you may see a green animal named Sluggo and a flying pig named Philomena. You might even see street artist David Zinn drawing them using only sidewalk chalk and charcoal (炭笔).
At the age of 12, David began working as an artist. His dad was writing a computer instruction and worried that it would be boring to read. So he asked David to draw pictures of turtles (the name of the computer program) to explain it. The publisher liked his drawings, and soon David had the job of drawing more turtles in action. “I learned a great lesson, which was that, to make money as an artist, I couldn't always draw what I wanted,” he says. “I had to figure out how to draw a turtle drinking tea and other things like that.”
David worked for 20 years as a commercial (商业的) artist, but he often felt cooped up (禁锢) sitting at a computer for 10 hours a day. Then, on a sunny afternoon about ten years ago, he brought some chalk and started drawing on the sidewalk. That's when Sluggo came to life.
“One of the reasons I like to put art on the street is to take people by surprise,” he says. “I can have fun drawing, and knowing it will be washed away helps me not think too much. It frees me up.”
It takes David about two hours to complete one drawing. He uses a lot of sidewalk characteristics in his street art. It can be difficult to draw on surfaces that are not flat. He has to notice where shadows will land so they won't destroy the 3D drawings he creates.
Today, more and more people are accepting and looking for his work. David's artwork can also be found across the country and even throughout the world. Photos of his drawings have been shown at many universities and museums.
1. What did David learn from drawing turtles for his father?| A．Work hard. | B．Follow your heart. |
| C．Draw what you like. | D．Draw in a creative way. |
| A．Relaxed. | B．Worried. |
| C．Unhappy. | D．Surprised. |
| A．It shows his real life. |
| B．It is drawn on the flat sidewalk. |
| C．It needs a very long time to finish a drawing. |
| D．It is 3D street art created by simple painting tools. |
| A．They are becoming popular. |
| B．They are too difficult to understand. |
| C．They are found mainly at museums. |
| D．They are hardly accepted by adults. |
