art
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Man Walking Into Red, Gold, Black and Blue
Without the figure what would this painting be? An abstract painting where people would bring their own sense of scale….landscape or postage stamp? It doesn’t have many brush strokes the colors were added and allowed to act accord to the laws of material science and physics. Adding a figure, for better or worse, encourages the…
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Chinese Poetry and Philosophy Illustration and Translation
I have maintained a regular practice of translating Chinese poetry, Taoist philosophy, and Buddhist tidbits into English. One of the great pleasures of studying Chinese is the poetry. Due to the visually beautiful calligraphic aesthetic of written characters and multi-layered meanings in each character, Chinese poetry functions at a sublime level. When I translate poems,…
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Tiny Huge Landscapes
One type of painting that I have been creating with more frequency are landscapes and cityscapes that are fairly abstract but usually grounded by a tiny figure, tree, building, pole or some combination of these. There is something about creating a landscape on a small scale, (sometimes just several centimeters wide and long), that is…
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Painted Words
One of the unique and elevating features of traditional Chinese art is how it integrates writing and painting. Chinese calligraphy on its own is often considered the highest form of traditional Chinese art. At its best it balances discipline and freedom and is a highly abstract form of visual art that predates western abstract painting…
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Shanghai Nude Model Sketch-group
The model sketching group I attend most Saturdays is a favorite part of my week. Participants range widely in age, gender, and experience. For the last session we had a foreign model, a recently graduated student from New Hamshire, who had great poses. For this pose, she held a book by a Czech writer straight…
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Notebooks
My artwork and poems usually begin in my notebooks. I started in middle school with illustrated dream diaries and have continued to this day. After college when I lived in New York City, I used notebooks to sketch people on the subway and in public spaces. I still do that today in Shanghai. Most of…
