Calligraphic Flow (Earth & Ink)

On this first day of the Lunar New Year, I want to start my Artist Notes with an introduction for one of my longest standing, cohesive art practices thus far.

A seed planted in March 2019, after living in New York City for a few months and frequenting Chinatown, this series started as an exploration of a medium I had once accessed as a child in Chinese school, and one summer while visiting my relatives in China. Stumbling upon a small Chinese art materials store in the back of a supermarket inspired me to recall and experiment with Chinese calligraphy, in combination with other mediums I had at my disposal.

The result was a visual fabric of Chinese calligraphy strokes decontextualized from the words they usually form, and repurposed among techniques and mediums not typically found in the traditional Chinese practice. As I expanded upon this, I found that the series grew to capture in some ways my experience as a Chinese Asian American; I am simultaneously Chinese by heritage, Asian by solidarity, and American by context, embodying both none and yet all.

Eventually, this series grew into a broader "Earth & Ink" series that encompasses all of my works that utilize Chinese calligraphy strokes, forms and materials in various visual contexts, incorporating concepts like yin and yang that have become more relevant to my work in recent years.

Explore the Earth & Ink collection on my site for available prints.