statement

Luminosity Series (2016-Present)

Sumptuously painted in a technique consisting of free-flowing wave-like patterns held in check by subtly controlled washes of glaze and exacting trompe l'oeil floras and shells, my floral and nautilus paintings exemplify the theme and style indicative of my ongoing body of work, the "Luminosity Series."

In my recent series,I have created an asymmetrical composition by off-setting the circular shapes of the primary spiral of the nautilus shell and the floral images against the angular edges of the squared off canvas. Further interest is added to the composition through the articulation of the nautilus shell's segments and the structure of natural flora. I achieve a feeling of dramatic motion by obliterating portions of my ornately patterned objects by merging them with a background of sweeping ribbons, rippling draping, folding petal veins, floating seashells, and dancing stripes. My composition is supported by a dense spatial field of interpreted interactions of forms and patterns found in nature. These patterns include repetitive clusters of meandering lines and portioned color filled areas that suggest ambiguous space. Rhythmic movement is created from a simultaneous saturation and pastel dissolution of the aforementioned contrasting colors within the pictorial space. A sense of fundamental transformation for which no beginning and end can be discovered evolves from this body of work. Contrasting colors with meandering lines, and precisely rendered floral images and improvised random patterns, add to the feeling of engagement with rather than separation from my life experience of Eastern and Western cultures and transcendental belief in Zen Buddhism. Through my art, I try to explore traditionally popular garden flowers in a contemporary context. By bridging the gap of tradition and contemporariness, I connect the opposing aesthetics of the celebrated garden flowers with the transcendental world of spirituality. My Luminosity Series is classic in some respects because it pays homage to traditional floral still lives. The ambiguous space settings of my floral and nautilus painting is a departure from realism because the space depicted is abstract or non-representational. The ambiguous space creates the transcendental or spiritual illusion that is a vital expression in my work.

The distinctive palette of my Luminosity Series is about new sensory experience mingled with nostalgia for familiar one. No matter where I have relocated to in the past, the local plants and flowers always bring back old memories or pangs of yearning in my heart. Nostalgia is more powerful than memory alone. The shades of blue and magenta, like Yin and Yang, help to capture the timeless and transitory moments of my life’s journey. I believe that incredibly delicate and complex plant blooms display not only the beauty of nature but also the transcendental longing of humanity for a world beyond this one. The motivation behind my floral and nautilus paintings is to hold on to the essence of the transitional feeling, memory, time and space of an ephemeral moment. In the Zen Buddhist sense, daily life experience is unique in itself. It is essential to live in a moment of my daily life. It may seem contradictory to try to rematerialize what is already gone, but a part of the large historical rational behind humankind’s reasons for making art seems to favor into this endeavor. The beauty of a short-lived flower evokes a melancholic sense of transience of life and leaves a memory trace that speaks to me about the inevitable processes of change. My art embodies the experience of transition, a sense of the bitter-sweet—of the time in-between—a feeling of the loss for a past that is left behind, and the excitement of new connection in the future.