WESTERLY — In a time when all of us could benefit from a more “tender world” — a world that encourages us to “wonder, reflect and recharge” — along comes Joy Lin with her soothing words and peaceful drawings in the form of “The Oxherd Boy: Parables of Love, Compassion and Community,” her healing book full of wisdom and hope.
Consider, for instance, the page featuring the little oxherd boy staring out at a softly-colored pond full of lily pads accompanied by the words: “Sometimes the brightest colors come from the darkest places.”
Or the page that urges us “Don’t worry what will become of the world. Maybe it will be alright. Maybe it will be glad we didn’t give up.”
Lin, who uses the pen name Regina Linke, is a writer and illustrator with such quiet power and grace that just being in her presence can be a calming, rewarding experience.
On Wednesday, visitors to the Westerly Library’s Hoxie Gallery will be able to meet Lin — and view her exquisite art — at an event designed to mark the opening of her monthlong exhibit, one that will also include an author talk and Q&A with the audience.
The exhibit will include more than 30 of Lin’s framed prints and scrolls, sketches of the oxherd boy, behind-the-scenes items from her publishing process and video time-lapses.
A Houston-born Taiwanese-American artist, Lin specializes in contemporary Chinese “gongbi” painting, which she uses in “The Oxherd Boy,” a book that celebrates East Asian folklore and philosophy in an accessible and modern way courtesy three “friends” — the ox, the rabbit and the oxherd boy.
The book, said Lin one recent afternoon as she sat inside the Hoxie Gallery, discussing her work, her background, and her 2023 move from Taiwan to Westerly with her husband, Ben Linke, and young son, Damien, was inspired by “The Three Harmonious Teachings,” which are the three pillars of Chinese philosophy.
It was also inspired by Damien.
The first character readers of “The Oxherd Boy” meet is “the boy,” a character inspired by Taoism, Lin explained, who also resembles her son.
“He looks at the world without judging right from wrong, accepting both as a source of balance in the world,” she writes about the oxherd boy in the book’s introduction.
Next, readers meet the ox, which, Lin writes, is “a strong and simple character who views the world through a Buddhist lens” and joins the boy’s innocence with kindness.
Finally, the rabbit, representing Confucianism, is introduced.
“She is an active and industrious participant concerned about how we look after each other here on earth,” Lin writes.
Together, the three help one another develop peaceful relationships with nature, their community of family and neighbors, and themselves, Lin said.
Essentially, “The Oxherd Boy” is a collection of parables with uplifting messages for life’s various crossroads, illustrated in a traditional Chinese style of brush painting.
Lin said when she was a child growing up in Houston, she loved to paint and draw, but didn’t take formal lessons.
“Maybe I bristled under direction,” she said with a quiet laugh.
As an adult, however, when she and her husband, Ben, a learning scientist, moved to Taiwan, the idea of lessons sounded more appealing. She signed up at a studio where the instructor gave lessons in traditional Chinese painting and also taught about Chinese history and traditions. The instructor, Lin said, encouraged the students to “immerse some of ourselves” in their work.
“It was a perfect fit,” said Lin, who graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, received a master’s degree from Cornell and spent several years in the Peace Corps serving in Peru.
But when her instructor told her one day, “You’ll never be a great gongbi artist,” she was taken aback.
“I grew up in the American school system of the nineties,” she said with a laugh. “Everyone was getting trophies.”
When he told her she had “an eye for western composition,” she said she wasn’t certain what he meant.
“Forge your own path,” he told her.
Around the same time, she said, her son, Damien — who was about four years old at the time — began asking questions she was unprepared to answer.
“He’s sort of an old soul,” she said of her son, now a student at State Street School. “He was obsessed with subjects that were hard to explain … like death and justice and war.”
She began wondering if she might be able to use her art in a way to make her son’s questions — and the tenets of the three “Harmonious Teachings” — “more accessible.”
Soon she was applying ancient Chinese painting techniques in a digital medium.
“That’s essentially how everything coalesced,” Lin said. “I began posting online and it took off.”
“It struck a chord,” said Lin, who uses Instagram to share her work and has amassed an impressive group of followers. “It’s a privilege to share it with a broader community.”
Lin also publishes her “comics” — messages that serve as a balm to one’s wounds — on her website.
Her son, she said, “has played such a huge part of how it all came together.”
“It’s been so fun and so, so wild to watch how the partnership developed,” she said. “He figures so prominently.”
“It’s an exciting time,” said Lin. “A happy time.”
“And everyone has been so supportive,” she said, praising the staff from the United and the library. Amanda Wagner, the library and park’s marketing and outreach manager, has been her helpmate in setting up the exhibit, which will also include a silent auction of limited-edition prints.
“Joy has been so pleasant to work with,” said Wagner via telephone last week. “She’s incredibly talented and her images … with their muted tones … are so unique.”
“She really is a joy,” Wagner added.
Lin said she also plans to sign copies of “The Oxherd Boy” during the July 3 event, which will include an “armchair interview” with Ted Ferragut of Westerly.
Ferragut, a writer, who, like Lin, is a member of the Westerly Writers Group, said he was thrilled when Lin asked him to moderate Wednesday’s book discussion.
Ferragut said he knew from their very first meeting that Lin “was something special … with her illustrations, her writings, and her solid critiques of other members’ work.”
“When I first read her book, I was spellbound,” Ferragut said, “not only by the illustrations, but by the writing as well.”
Ferragut, who’s read Lin’s book several times, recalled his reaction after the first reading, when he thought, “Joy may think this is a children’s book, and it is, but it’s an adult book as well!”
Ferragut said he believes people who attend Wednesday’s opening night exhibit and book talk “will come to appreciate not only her [Lin’s] high-quality work but her high-quality character as well.”
Lin has also been working with the United, which will sponsor the monthlong online silent auction.
Carly Callahan, the United’s executive director, called Lin “a shining example of the wealth of talented, creative people in Westerly.”
“She exudes true artistry,” said Callahan in an email, “and we are so fortunate to have her in our community.”
Callahan said when Lin participated in the United’s Michael DePaola Literary Salon last month, she read an excerpt from an upcoming work.
“Her words were stunning,” Callahan said, and silenced the audience so thoroughly, that “you could have heard a pin drop.”
“In addition to her generous support, for which we are very grateful, we are collaborating with her on a project in our gallery for 2025,” Callahan added. “We hope that this is just the beginning of a wonderful partnership.”