I love the city and I consider myself a city girl. I grew up in Hong Kong and lived in London while I traveled around the world working in other major cities. When I moved to LA, it was here in California that I found the forest and the majestic Sequoias. These towering vertical giants rooted deep in the landscape of my memory bank. They connected to me like the cityscapes where I’ve lived. Growing up in Hong Kong, I was surrounded by vertical buildings. The vertical of the city, the vertical of Sequoias, towering over me like some form of protector when I am looking up at them.
My paintings depict the love affair between myself and the giant sequoias. The unexplainable internal emotions during these physical encounters are expressed through my work. When working on the canvas, I begin to build a relationship with every brush stroke and layer of paint that I apply onto the surface. These actions recreate a dialogue and inner connection between two different species, humans and nature. I began role playing with my subject matter, in a sense I view them as individuals, like imaginary friends. I paint these trees as they see themselves, not as humans looking at trees. The trees speak to me of their feelings, their world, and what we cannot see as human beings. The thick texture of paint in my work represents char and death, part bark, part life, part survival. It is a love story which involves the tension of beauty, destruction, and power. I find myself painting these trees but comparing them as people at times, the joy, the sufferings, the turmoil, and the pleasure of daily life, living in an imaginary colony. I invite the viewers into this dance of texture, colors, and the nonverbal conversation between the painter and the subject.