刘俏言

把脑海里的想法变成现实是一个艰难的旅程，为这一过程，马云用了10年，乔布斯用了20年。而更多的人则仅将其留在头脑中，直至垂垂暮年方想起年轻时曾有过那些稀奇古怪的想法。

钱依敏不想这样。这15年，她大学毕业后，在杭州的中学里当美术老师，嫁人生子，但她从未放弃当初那个一闪而过的想法，并将其变成了手下一幅幅完美的艺术作品。

礼物

大学时期的钱依敏学的是平面设计专业，本是和电脑打交道的她遇见了那个弹着古琴写得一手好书法的钮利刚。这是爱情的起点，更是钱依敏转变的起点——同他在一起之后，钱依敏对博大精深的中华传统文化兴趣日浓。“可能是我对她的影响略大一些吧”，钮利刚笑着对我说。

说不清什么时候开始，钱依敏被魏晋时期的人物画法深深迷住了，“这些极具张力的线条，复杂精妙的构图简直太美了，我甚至无法用语言形容它。”钱依敏眯起眼睛回忆着。热恋中的她突然想，自己能不能用线在叶子上绕出这些佛像的形状，送给男朋友作为礼物呢？

叶脉的纹路是很精妙的，它本身就是大自然的作品。古人以线在画面上组织物象，并融入其思想情感，创造出“一个个鲜活的生命”。那我用生活中的线来粘贴、缠绕，或许也能创作出另一番风味。钱依敏脑子里这样想着，手上也不闲着，立刻跑去路边捡了一些心形的杨树叶，恨不得立刻做好了送给钮利刚，顺便看看他惊喜的表情。

或许每个人第一次将想法变成现实的动力都不尽相同，对于钱依敏而言，爱情就是最好的助推剂。当她第一次看到成型的作品时，喜悦和不满两种复杂的情绪同时涌上心头——“这个作品没有我想的那么完美。”这是钱依敏的第一印象。

魏晋时期的石刻艺术雕像，其线条之所以唯美优雅，最主要的原因就是其间的起承转合。而如果用线去勾勒这样的图形，单一粗细的丝线很难准确地表达出这种意境。这就像是统一印刷出来的汉字，虽然整齐划一，但却始终没有毛笔墨汁书写出来后所拥有的意境和美感。对此，深谙书法用笔之道的钮利刚一语道破——“这些作品缺乏一种‘书写感。”

打磨

钱依敏不想就这样放弃。

在钮利刚的鼓励下，钱依敏开始更加认真地对待自己的作品。她仔细研究了白描画法中线条的粗细规则，发现在一些重要的转折处线都是偏重。基于此，钱依敏改变了起初单一的粘线方法，开始将线分成更细的几股，通过股数的变化来凸显画像中线条的“书写感”。

显然，这样的工艺要求要比之前不知要高出多少个台阶。完成这样一幅画，要先在白纸上打好草稿，然后将几近透明的叶子铺在白纸上，按照事先画好的纹路将丝线用白胶粘在叶脉上。在这一过程中，粘线要慢慢地来，粘上一点，要等白胶干了才能往下粘。细细雕琢下，平时看似柔软的绣花线变得倔强任性，不听使唤。钱依敏在此过程中反复按压、拼贴，直线形、曲线形，漸渐成形时不知不觉已过数月。“拿起叶脉，透过阳光，看到纤柔的线儿在纵横交错的茎脉上时而跳跃、时而缓步，人像在其间隐约显现，若有若无，如升初日、如清风、如云、如霞、如烟、如幽林曲洞，给我以惊喜和兴奋。”钱依敏在日记中写道。

“天有时，地有气，材有美，工有巧，合此四者，然后可以为良。”此时此刻，作品对于钱依敏的意义已经不再是一个礼物了，她开始沉迷于创作本身而非最后的成品，一生二，二生三，15年间，钱依敏的制作技巧由笨拙而变得游刃有余，并积累了数十幅作品。其中有工笔线描形式的单个佛像，婉然若树，穆若清风，又有破叶而出凌空飞舞的伎乐飞天，她将中华传统的古韵融入了这一叶之内，化腐朽为神奇。

钱依敏可能没有意识到，能够花费数个月的时间却不带一点功利性地去完成一件作品，这在如今快节奏的生活中已属凤毛麟角。不断地较真丝线的颜色，不断改进用叶的形式，使得最终版的成品融合了叶的精致与丝的灵动。于是当篆刻家来一石先生看到这些颇具禅意的作品时，才会惊讶于其绝妙的纹路，并将此作品命名为——“菩提丝意”。

“当你坐足了冷板凳，那么出名这件事就是自然而然的了。”钮利刚这样说。的确，当这鲜有的创意走出书房后，瞬间引起了浙江卫视“藏家”栏目的注意，栏目特地为钱依敏做了专题报道。同时《美术报》也邀请其发表了“菩提丝意”的作品以及文章，作品《水月观音》还获得了浙江省“民间巧女”手工技艺大赛金奖。多位诗人因感其清远之意趣而题写了诗词。

钱依敏出名了。

生活

我是在周六的一个下午，在钱依敏家里见到她的。

夫妻二人穿着一身素雅的茶服，邀请我坐在一个四方的古典茶桌旁聊天，女儿小扣时不时地跑来探头观看。钱依敏家里的客厅没有沙发，中间是一个巨大的毡台，靠墙挨着一整面的书柜。墙上挂着国画和古琴——整个家里，都飘满古韵。

这是钮利刚的主意。这位书法才子更希望家里能够保留些中国古典的装饰艺术。“不希望把家搞得太现代。”钮利刚试图通过这样的方式潜移默化地对女儿进行教育，而事实上他的确做到了——“我喜欢历史。”不到6岁的小扣眯着眼睛对我说。

这是二人崇尚的顺其自然的教育模式。尽管二人都是学艺术出身，但直到现在他们还没有给小扣作任何的绘画或是书法上的指导。“小孩子最重要的还是要把基础知识学扎实，多背背古诗比较好。”钮利刚说，“这个阶段的孩子，最重要的是兴趣的激发。”小扣有一本画册，上面全是她的一些奇思妙想。

在向我展示作品时，钱依敏没有过多的言辞，只是简单地介绍了几句。在我不断追问下，她才一点一点告诉我完整的创作过程。钱依敏的话有些少，大部分时候是钮利刚在旁边补充着她的作画思路和想法，尤其在我问及是否会申请专利时，钮利刚立刻接过话道：“她做这个东西的目的是很纯粹的，真的没有想要去商业化或是怎样，就是很单纯地去完成这样一幅幅作品，在创作的过程中去感悟那一丝禅意。”说罢，钮利刚还挠了挠头，“我的话是不是有点多啊，你还是问她吧。”

看著活泼好动的小扣在家里跑来跑去，我不禁为钱依敏的创作担心起来，于是发问道：“平时是如何在家里作画的，不怕女儿打扰吗？”事实上自从生了女儿，钱依敏就几乎不在家里作画了。一方面是在家里需要和女儿互动，另一方面也是因为害怕女儿不小心弄坏了那些薄如蝉翼的叶子。她把创作地点从家里搬到了自己执教学校的办公室，上完上午的绘画课后，下午的时间就用来继续她的手工创作。

家里和办公室里是两个完全不同的空间。在办公室里慢慢粘着线，一下午就过去了。这是属于钱依敏自己的时间和空间，在这一过程中，她能肆意地去体会创作的快意和宁静，而回到家中，丈夫的关怀和女儿的俏皮又让她享受到平凡的幸福。两个世界平行又交叉，这让钱依敏每天都感受加倍的充实和快意。

把日子过成诗，大抵不过如此吧。

How many years does it take to translate ones dream into reality？ It took Jack Ma 10 years. It took Jobs 20 years. Many have never got a chance to do it. Qian Yimin， a middle school art teacher in Hangzhou， has been working on her art dream for fifteen years.

She studied graphic design on computer at college. Then she met and fell in love Niu Ligang， a young man who played and wrote calligraphy pretty well. Knowing him was a turning point in her life. She began to take a great interest in traditional Chinese culture. “In our relationship， I have impacted her more，” smiled Niu in an interview many years later.

She didnt know exactly when she became enchanted by the artistry of figure painting of the Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty more than 1，800 years ago. “These lines look powerful and compositions are sophisticated and elegant. I failed to describe them in words，” recalled Qian. Suddenly she wondered if she could imitate the artistry and made some Buddha images with silk threads on dry leaves and gave the artworks to her boyfriend as a love token. She immediately started her ambitious project. She picked some aspen leaves by a road and set down to translate her dream into reality. She imagined whether her boyfriend would be surprised. She completed the artwork. Examining it closely， she felt both happy and dissatisfied. “It was as perfect as I had wanted it to be，” recalled Qian.

Niu Ligang commented： “They lack a sense of brushstrokes.” The comment was accurate and to the point， she considered. She settled down to study her artworks minutely and studied the ancient masterpieces minutely. She got to understand why the masterpieces looked so great. The way she applied silk thread didnt pay attention to the changes in lines created by brushstrokes. She needed to reflect the twists and turns of brushstrokes created by a brush-pen in her silk threads. She improved her methodology and redesigned her artistry. However， the new approach required more painstaking work. It took her a few months to explore， invent， and perfect her techniques. Gradually， artworks she created were more than gifts for her boyfriend. The creative process brought her a lot of happiness. Over the past fifteen years， she has completed dozens of artworks： images of silk threads on dried leaves. Each piece took a few months.

Qian was unaware that her creations， without any utilitarian purposes， were extremely rare at a time when everything else unfolds at accelerating rates. Eventually she set up a full range of techniques and she knows thoroughly how to express herself in an artwork of silk threads and leaves. When the seal artist Lai Yishi viewed her creations， he was overwhelmed by the sophistication of silk threads and patterns on leaves.

When she was at first discovered by her friends， her reputation spread. Zhejiang Satellite TV made a program on her artistry. Fine Arts， a weekly published in Zhejiang， made a big coverage of her art. One of her artworks won a gold medal in a provincial competition. Some of her works have inspired a number of poems.

I visited Qian Yimin and her husband Niu Ligang at their home one Saturday afternoon. Both of them were dressed in tea dresses. I was invited to sit with them at a square tea table， which presented a classical style. Their six-year-old daughter poked her head in now and then and took a look at me. The sitting room doesnt have a sofa. In the center stood gigantic table covered tightly with a layer of felt， where he practices calligraphy. One wall is lined with bookshelves. On the other wall is a painting in the traditional Chinese style as well as a ， a traditional Chinese musical instrument. Niu Ligang was the mastermind of the apartment decoration. “I dont want a home equipped with ultra-modern gadgets，” he said. He tried to bring a scholastic influence upon their daughter. “I like history，” the daughter told me. Though， the parents have received art education， they dont force any art education upon their daughter. “Essential knowledge is the most important thing for a kid. Committing some ancient poems is really good，” said the father. “At this age， a kids interest is the most important thing.” The daughter has made some drawings in a notebook. The drawings are full of wild imagination.

Since she gave birth to the daughter， she has not worked at home for fear that her daughter may damage dried leaves， which are as thin as the wings of cicadas. She teaches morning classes and works her creations at the office in the school in the afternoon， leaving all her off-work time and space to her daughter at home.

I looked at her creations and listened to her brief introductions. No， she would not apply for a patent for the art. She doesnt care for commercial purposes. She wants to experience Zen in the process of creativity.