Inspirations & Appreciation

A Homage to the Artist 

Art Appreciation

In my art, I have many inspirations. The list includes the influence of Chinese cultural heritage, and those particularly of the Sung Dynasty.  My interest began after a visit to view the works of Zao Wou-ki, and the passion for creation was sparked.  

In my journey, I have been so blessed to meet many great artists, and one memory of mine can be shared here with a visit to the studio of Louise Bourgeois and her enjoyment of finding surprises within my art and how her discoveries also draw me into this subconscious world of artistic expression.  

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It was a special break in my work career, having left Walt Disney Company, I was in New York visiting my brother and sister-in-law, and awaiting the birth of his twin boys. 

The idea of visiting Louise Bourgeois was one of my sister-in-law and her mother, both artists in their own right.

I called to make the booking and amazingly, got a space in her studio salons.

Her home was somewhat dim and solemn, wood, antiquated furnishings and her walls covered in notes and photos.  I don’t recall much else except a room full of artists, and a beautiful art piece of a tree.

A lady with a long dress appeared, as the crowd got seated in her living room.  A younger gentlemen sat by her side at the front of the drawing room, in a chair on a stage.  A camera was rolling in the background, to archive the visits that too place each weekend.    

Each artist took turns to introduce their art, after placing it in the front of the room.  Mine was a work that I had just gotten paints in a nearby store and painted a night before the visit, on the streets of New York.  It was a simple scene of mountains on two panels.  I made two, one with a more free and easy impression (fig a.), the second, a more deliberate one (fig b.), drawn from memory of taking a cruise on the Three Gorges.   

Yangtze River, China | Acrylic on Canvas | 30 x 60 cm (fig a.)

Yangtze River Gorges | Acrylic on Canvas | 30 x 60 cm (fig. b)

The assistant raised it up to show the audience and Louise Bourgeois, and asked me to speak about it.  I don’t really remember what I actually said, except Ms Bourgeois, says in her deep husky voice “Did you intend to paint faces in these mountains?”.  I noticed they did look like reclining human figures with faces, and I said “No, it wasn’t intended and they just appeared”. 

I didn’t follow up and didn’t understand what the point was she was making.  And the conversation moved along to the next artist.

I look back on the visit with this grand artist of our world, and through my body of work, and over time,  her words seem to draw greater meaning to my art again and again. 

The power of the spirit what is hidden in the art, and perhaps she was directing me to take notice of this.  Indeed, in my greatest of all works, the rational, the visual reality of our world disappears and the shadows of life appears.  Figures, from a time and place that hints at a familiar age, a world of animals,  a world that constantly creates a flow of the imagination and dual existence inside my art.  In the horizontal view, see a profile, it transforms to a frontal face, then turn the artwork vertically, it is another scene, a profile of a figure or animal, in new places.  Turn again, and again, the world turns into a third subject, and fourth subject.  Abstraction appears to breath in multiple levels and dimensions.  I don't know what to call it yet, but it is like a microcosm in the macrocosm, a synchronicity of thoughts transferred into the forms and colours on the canvas.  This brings me great happiness, and surprise when I see the results again and again discovering subjects in my work.  I don’t know where the objects arise from except in my emotions found in my spirit… and I return to the thoughts of Louise Bourgeois:

"To express your emotions, you have to be very loose and receptive. The unconscious will come to you if you have that gift that artists have. I only know if I' m inspired by the results."- Louise Bourgeois