My 2015 painting Waft features, against an empty and nondescript landscape, a very small girl in the lower right corner of the vertical canvas, running away from the viewers, while holding strings tied to floating human balloons, all in the shape of young women dressed in pure white, in postures of awakening or drowning. Was it a hopeful dream, or a potentially nightmare? It is up to the viewers to decide. Perhaps, what I captured was the the hope and trepidation of a very young person at that cusp of growing into herself, while facing a future unknown.
Waft
Oil on Canvas
30" x 24"
Completed in 2015
This painting was chosen as cover art and as a featured piece on page 19 by Pomona Valley Review (Volume 11), published by California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in July 2017.
Last year, a print and online review magazine, Owen Wister Review (University of Wyoming), planned to publish three works of mine: Stairwell, Rafting, and Ink and Watercolor Lilies. After much delay, the 2015 issue finally was published.
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From early June to late October, I will participate a group show, titled Crowded by Beauty, in McGuire Real Estate Office Gallery, Berkeley.
Below is information from the announcement by McGuire Real Estate:
Last weekend, Issue 8 (May 2014) of Pomona Valley Review was published online and two of my paintings were included in this new edition, following the publication of my two paintings and an installation in their last year's edition, Issue 7.
The paintings included in the magazine were an oil painting, Surveying (2013), and a gouache painting, Wildflowers (2014).
Surveying, Oil on Canvas, 28" x 22"
Wildflowers, Gouache on Paper, 7" x 10.25"
These two paintings, different in sizes, media, and particularly colors - one was monochromatic and the other burst with colors - shared my current fascination with intricate and repeating patterns, evident in the whirling wasted fields in Surveying and undulating flowers and green leaves in Wildflowers.
Below is the comprehensive survey of my published artworks:
My oil painting "White Dresses", part of my on going "White Dress" series, recently had garnered several recognitions.
Last week, ArtSlant.com, the largest online art community/arbiter, just awarded this painting as one of the winners in the seventh 2013 Showcase Competition, the awards I had won five times previously starting 2010 for my paintings and drawings:
In July, this painting was also published by Wilde Magazine in their third issue, a beautifully produced magazine one can browse the preview online and purchase through MagCloud:
Wilde Magazine was founded in 2012 with the goal of offering a queer
perspective on life through art and writing. We are a bi-annual
publication, available in both print and digital formats.
We seek to not only offer a high-quality publication of art and
literature, but to foster a communal and multimedia experience. Art and
writing, culture itself, is not a mere showcase of talent, but rather a
discussion.
The nature of queer life, as well as an artistic life, is one centered
around community. It's essential in our creative abilities and our rise
against adversity. This struggle has been documented by gay artists and
writers before us, such as the very one after which this magazine is
christened - Oscar Wilde.
It is a honor to have my
works included in this magazine again! I chose to submit some paintings with theme of the comfort of familiar objects, in somewhat strange settings or arrangement, to reflect the marginalized situations. The paintings they chose to included in this issues are Leisurely (page 16), several slow sinking boats danced to the gentle waves, and White Dresses (page 28), an array of identical white dresses floating in a dreamy or nightmarish space.
Below are the screenshots of the
online previews. You may browse the magazine in a reduced format
online, and the print and digital versions of the magazine can be
purchased through MagCloud.
One of my proudest paintings, Liberation Road, inspired by an old photo of my beautiful great grandmother, and our family history in the last century which had brought much suffering to Chinese people, rich and poor, was included in Artist Portfolio Magazine Publication's second anniversary issue.
I incorporated elements of destruction into the painting, with a large road sign "Liberation Road" occupying the center of the canvas:
Oil on Canvas 18" x 24" Completed in 2010
This painting was just published by Artist Portfolio Magazine in their 11th issue, in June 2013:
Quoting the statement from the official website, "Wilde Magazine was founded in 2012 with the goal of offering a queer
perspective on life through art and writing. We are a bi-annual
publication, available in both print and digital formats.
We seek to not only offer a high-quality publication of art and
literature, but to foster a communal and multimedia experience. Art and
writing, culture itself, is not a mere showcase of talent, but rather a
discussion.
The nature of queer life, as well as an artistic life, is one centered
around community. It's essential in our creative abilities and our rise
against adversity. This struggle has been documented by gay artists and
writers before us, such as the very one after which this magazine is
christened - Oscar Wilde."
It is a honor to have my works included in this magazine. Below are the screenshots of the online previews. You may browse the magazine in a reduced format online, and the print and digital versions of the magazine can be purchased through MagCloud.
I have been working on a series of paintings with "white dress(es)" motif for quite a while, and recently I extended my effort to include some installation/mixed-media endeavors. My most complete effort in this new field was a work titled "Stringed White Dresses - An Installation", completed in March 2013.
Using some rather square and unyielding origami white dresses, pasted onto twine, who was in turn attached to a wooden frame, I created a subtle contrast between order and disarray, manifested in the disordered formation of the white dresses. To enhance the contrast and drama, I affixed to the frame an ink drawing - mostly in black, with dashes of muted red. When I started to get excited about this project, I recorded part of the creation process on video. Below are the video clip and the finished piece:
Though I was happy with and proud of the resulting work, I didn't pin much hope on this piece, which was really an experiment. Yet, I was curious enough to see other people's reactions to it, so I submitted it for publication. In April, it was included in Pomona Valley Review, Issue 7, published by Cal Poly Pomona.
I was quite encouraged by this acceptance and entered it for the ArtSlant 4th 2013 Showcase competition, in the mixed-media category. Last week, I was informed, and then saw the result online, that it had won the award.
That made it the fourth win in ArtSlant's Showcase competitions.
ArtSlant is the #1 Contemporary Art Network with worldwide arts calendars, artitsts, reviews, and online art sales of originals and prints.
I am quite pleased and more than a bit amused by its success. A new direction? Maybe. The "White Dress" series will continue, for sure.
Hot on the heels of Four Paintings of Mine Published by Superstition Review's publication of my four paintings a day ago, Pomona Valley Review, Issue 7 was published by California State Polytechnic University Pomona, which also features two Paintings and an installation of mine. The seventh issue of the magazine - mine works can be seen on pages 10, 63 and 76, and page 150, one may read a short bio of mine.
Superstition Review, published by Arizona State University, is an "online literary magazine produced by
creative writing and web design students at Arizona State University.
Founded by Patricia Colleen Murphy in 2008, the mission of the journal
is to promote contemporary art and literature by providing a free,
easy-to-navigate, high quality online publication that features work by
established and emerging artists and authors from all over the world."
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