Artist Statement

The amazing job of nature’s creation exists even on the tiniest fungi growing in a forbidden corner of human infrastructure. And wherever there is creation on earth, water is present. I want to address the perfection and the harmony of creation in relation with water in my work, and instead of imitating it through my own brush strokes, I choose to allow it to occur on my painting.To achieve this goal, watercolor to me is the best starting point, because it can generates so many organic textures on paper. I started by tearing my paper into pieces, then putting them in a tank loaded with watercolor paints. My idea was to hand the painting job totally to water. As time went by, the capillarity effect carried the paints onto the paper surfaces and created organic shapes.It may not be my own painting, because a lot of parts are done by water; I am not responsible on the pattern or the fine edges the water created. I made the color choice, and that is all I did. However, I have a firmer belief that this is my art than my watercolor landscape. I might not have
painted it, but I surely triggered its existence; I was not forcing it to grow nor did I alter the creation during the process, but without me, the colors or the textures will not even exit at first place. I provided the path and so the water takes it and manipulates it with nature’s authority,
hence the image presented is nature’s wisdom in revelation.

The final stage of painting was to add my own strokes on it and see how successful my brush marks exist in harmony with the creation of water. It is a symbolic gesture to the role of humans beings in nature. We have the power of choice and are intelligent enough to alter what is given– either making it better or worse.

Technorati Tags: art, watercolor, painting, artist, journal

What if the internet and the cyberspace became the majority part of our experience and eventually took over the analogue aspect of our life? Then by showing the screen shots, people can literally experience the real life of one another….

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The featured flash animation is a project I did last year September (from 22nd to 30th to be exact) while taking an alternative media course with Prof. Craig Drennen at SCAD. During the week, the Yankees were picking up their momemtum towards the end of the season, and Hurricane Rita was hitting the United States.

I printed my screenshot manually every ten minutes whenever I was using computer for one week, then putting them together using Flash as a metaphor of the flying-by life. The orignial presentation was a video installation with background soundtrack, in which I projected the animation onto a piece of a facial sculpture made with liquid plastic. The face has a melted look that symbolizes the fact that digital media is rapidly invading our normal cycle of life, and is influencing the value of the human.
Currently I am working on a 6 weeks project, the screenshots are already taken, but my computer is too slow to edit 6-week-load of pictures…= =” I think I would figure out a way eventually.
Well, does this have something to do with watercolor? I think the answer is no, but as an artist that uses computer a lot, I feel I have to get something from it to justify the time it takes from me for painting…

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Black ochre is the national flower of Belize, a small nation in Central America…

It’s framed within a China-made frames, just like how Chinese Culture brought in by immigrants is slowly permeating through the local community and hence shaping the society….

An epidome of what’s going on around the world right now…powerful nations, not necessary just China, influencing the third world countries.

Technorati Tags: art, watercolor, painting, artist, journal

The fluctuation and the feathering effect of watercolor catch my breath when I see them gradually develop into sky, ocean or any kind of vegetation on paper. Its spontaneous effect also reminds me of the creation of nature.

When I see colors floating on paper surfaces and being pulled by gravity, it reminds me the living force of plants - showing strength quietly, like Spring sprouts that are tender yet full of vitality, and like stems and roots that are soft yet powerful enough to break rocks, and like the humble nature always conquers human power.

Fallen in love with nature and depicted it a lot in my arts, I realize there are so many things, such as life-force and strength, that are hard to imitate through visual images. The best that I feel I can do is to refine the mark-making to try to create the fluency that is similar to the perfection of nature. Perfection in nature is, for example, a tree that grows countless leaves all at once when the right time comes, yet all of them exist with one another in harmony. I feel I could spend my whole life and still could not do paintings that match the harmony of nature. However, watercolor gives spirit to my painting. When I use washes and see colors growing and feathering on paper, I sense its life force, and I see that it has a mind of its own. I wants my watercolor to be the representation of my wisdom, just as nature’s wisdom is revealed through water.

I really love this piece for the fact that I am able to preserve the humble and traditional look of Chinese painting while trying a new way of presenting my work. To me, that’s the most challenging part—to transform the tradition into a medium of conveying a modern idea while maintaining the old taste.

To maintain the tradition is crucial for me, because I think only by keeping the root in mind as a foundation can I have longevity in my art life. Another reason why I think my past, including my Chinese painting foundation and the oriental cultural influences on me, is so important is that traditional Chinese painting conveys a message in a humble, subtle way; unlike most of the modern painter trying to be as expressive as they could, humbleness, I think, is accepted by people much more easily, and by acceptance it means the willingness to agree and act in accordance with the message, similar to what religions do. And indeed, traditional Chinese painting is religious; it helps people to meditate and tranquilize the mind, and it was a way that helps people to practice their religious belief, which means, in the oriental tradition, to cultivate oneself -whether it is the pursue of tranquility in mind as Daoism preaches, the achievement in social harmony as Confucianism promote, or mercifulness as Buddhism enlightens.

The work was done in watercolor on paper. Before I laid the first mark, I arranged the frame to a composition I like, and then draw a “frame map” on my sketch book; I also number each frame so the composition won’t get messed up. After that I do a drawing on sketch book of how I want the Ivy to grow inside the frame. The main idea here is to let Ivy grow within the Wal-Mart frames without surpassing the boundaries. So frames are parts of the artwork. They represent the human structure putting oppression on nature. I paint the Ivy straightly on the watercolor paper without any preliminary sketch except following the “growing map” on my sketch book. To do that effectively, I practice mark-making of Mint Ivy’s growth pattern to the extent that it is good enough so my marks also “grew” relentlessly on paper. This is second crucial part of the work, as good marks, much more than color, bring life to art.

After the main body of the work is done, I build a pedestal for the “original” of my art work -the real Mint Ivy which accompanied me when I work in my studio; I thought this enhances my idea as I, the artist, am the distributor of the beauty from the original. Although nature is priceless, I put up a price for the real Mint Ivy that is much higher than my art work just to contrast with the fake one that is packed and oppressed by human.