Yiioma

“Presence” is the second in a series inspired by the Taoist’s 洞天 (“dong tian” or “cave sky”). “Dong” meaning "hole" or “cave” and “Tian” referring to “sky”, or “heaven”. Going back as far as the 4th century, Taoist’s grotto-heavens were places where heaven and earth touched. Metaphorically speaking, this piece to me is an analogy of “meditation”. With “Presence”, I like to invite the viewer to discover a place where cave and sky (body and mind) meet and where one discovers an inner vastness of our being. It is as if we pierce into our dense mind body, entering the inner experience of a cave only to discover the bliss of presence, peace and freedom, reaching the timeless beauty of being one with our limitless sky at the present moment within.

Letting nature shine alongside men. 

I co-create art with randomness, intent, nature, machine and mankind; infusing records and marks of past, present and future. Celebrating the non-binary, the one, the many…Metamorphosis!

“Amend” evokes a sense of sorrow quietude and beauty.

There is a jade mountain anchoring the bottom of a broken heart that is self-repairing in mid-air.

It is about picking up the pieces and find the preciousness and beauty in the flawed and the broken.

The canvas itself had paint peeled off next to the dark and broken spirit/heart to symbolize actual tears.

The custom fiber-paste pieces were carefully created and delicately collaged atop.

The white scratch marks, where they were mended and highlighted with 24k gold leaf were there to pay tributes to the idea of “Kintsugi”, a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with precious materials, as a philosophy that treats breakage and repair as part of the history and something to cherish rather than to disguise.

Similar to Wabi-Sabi, “Amend” reminds us there is beauty even in the flawed and not just to accept but to cherish the perfectly imperfect.

"Diptych: Fauna” was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, ranked at the top 2.8 percent worldwide of Art Olympia 2019 (5686 paintings from 100 countries).

When compared with the diptych’s other half, “Flora”, the beauty of “Fauna” lies in its striking richness. Canvas was textured with gesso or intentionally left bare so as to maximize the entire range of its ability to be expressive. Its chosen, luxurious colors, depict the audacious beauty of animals, full of expressive egos and their desires. This is my interpretation of the unconventional Wabi-Sabi beauty manifested via man and nature in harmony, allowing skills to co-create with unplanned occurrences. When examined up close on the real piece, whether one finds it to be seductive, with patterns like abstracted big cats, or textures mimicking snake skin, veins and bones… it is full of energy like an animal seeking simply blood or gold. I intentionally created this piece to contrast “Flora”. Yet authentic art like this cannot be claimed by man’s ego alone, even if the subject is the excitement of animals’ mercurial ego. With “Fauna” and the contrasting “Flora”, I want to show that beauty can be found in all beings, with or without ego.

“Fauna” is the second in the diptych I call “Flora and Fauna”. When reviewed together, these yin and yang pieces conceptually enhance and contrast one another, delivering metaphoric abstraction that elevate their narrative beyond just visually pleasing.

“Flora” is visual poetry of how I abstractly deconstructed and rebuilt the “beings” known to men as plants. I used four morphing shapes to convey a plant’s growth and purpose in life. On a downward arc, the emerald seed fell to be squarely planted into the ground, in a transparent (ego-less) but timeless shape of Stonehenge; only to “bloom upwards” with an ever-flowing, viridescent, earth-toned spread. Textures of soil, rock, and mountain symbolize the fertile grounds, with verdure’s sprouting petals atop and its fallen leaves below.  It looks like earth blossoming, with a splash of emerging pink on the right, hinting at the flowering to come in Spring. When seen in real-life, matted planes were purposefully placed in contrast with glistering layers.  Details with depth shine through the slow-drying, translucent pools of earth-tone glacier. Like water irrigating the ground, the paint spread and soaked slowly, bringing the piece to life. Pleasure arises from the man-made choices combined with accidental beauty. When compared to the diptych’s other half, “Fauna”, the taste of “Flora” lies in its humility, depicting the plain beauty of the plants in nature without the need for being audacious, nor for aiming to please the crowd. 

“Flora” is the first of the diptych: “Flora and Fauna”. When reviewed together, they conceptually enhance and contrast one another, delivering metaphoric abstraction that elevate their narrative beyond just visually pleasing.

This painting is inspired by textures I had the honor to experience in Three Rivers, California pre-covid.

It was named “Crucible” as it was finished during the darkest hours of the year 2020.

At first glance, one might notice first the 24k gold leaf speckles, symbolizing even in the dark, one can always forge anew, as Man and Nature perpetually co-create and co-exist.

Upon closer examination, like a secret garden, if you know where to look, you would find Nature’s Art hidden everywhere with its glorious Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Sequencial patterns on full display.

Please examine this painting as a jeweler examining a gem with a magnifying glass … Me, a mere human is but a co-creator, as Nature is the true star that created all these stunning details. With a magnifiying glass, one can find these nature created small yellow flowers blooming in unexpected areas near the petrified wood resembling a forest-weathered tree bark. There are also feathering ferns in the smallest of areas appearing on their own. There is a dark rock texture with rainbow sheen that can only be seen in real life. Also, look for a self-created patch of art resembling an amphibian skin, with it, to me, this secret garden even seems teeming with abstracted fauna, as in real life.

These are Nature’s finger prints, leaving me traces of its physical testimony; as if it is saying to me: In life, one just needs to know where to look to find beauty and delights and I don’t get to do it all on my own.

In short, I am grateful for this piece as Nature came out with many of its truest art in the details, co-creating with me via —

Wabi Sabi inspired,

Abstract Natural Expressionism.

“Baba O’Reily”

Igniting Deep Within, the Restrained, the Balanced, the Furious.

Composing, Conducting, Emanating.

Can you “see” music?

Intrepid. Unapologetic.

Dare to Do the Should Nots with Beats of the Blue and the Faux-Pas.

Birth Interwoven With Death in a Fluid, Rhythmic, Cosmic Symphony of Energy And Life.

A Rockstar, Fiery Fender.

At the Event Horizon.

“Perseverance”, is the first in a series inspired by the Taoist’s 洞天 (“dong tian” or “cave sky”). “Dong” meaning "hole" or “cave” and “Tian” referring to “sky”, or “heaven”. Going back as far as the 4th century, Taoist’s grotto-heavens were places where heaven and earth touched. Metaphorically speaking, I believe it is as if one enters one’s own mountainous mind. By entering the grotto-heaven deep within our mountainous mind, one encounters our inner “being-ness”.

In “Perseverance”, strength, originating from a soft and tender heart, prevailing and beating through solid rock, resolves where courage and valor spark like diamonds. In the original piece, when seen live, one can see that diamond dust shines atop the gesso and fiber-paste rock textures, sparkling like crystals atop a deep maroon purple heart that always would prevail.

The color pallet and composition, while abstract, are both inspired from the traditional Asian Tsunami prints and paintings. I wanted to add a dimension of spirituality and uplifting energy since, to me, Tsunami symbolizes nature’s power to not only destroy but also create.  I first gesso textured the canvas expressively. I then patiently poured layer by layer, made splashes, waited for the paint to soak, then poured some more.  When seen in person, there are matted washes contrasted with glistering layers. There are sparks of iridescent speckles signifying ever-present spirits in the focal point of a rising Tsunami’s Moon.

This is control and chaos making art together. 

The birth of black and white, yin and yang. Manifesting the unmanifested. 

Carefully-laid textures with free-flowing gesso and paints. 

The manifest bursts out in a disintegrating comet. 

The white was left partially empty, signifying the pure beginning - with hints of light-gray washed above gesso textures. My intent was to leave the negative space to represent the unmanifested. It is the primitive yet righteous half of the emerging duality that Genesis, like Tai Chi, requires.  Equally, the deep black emerges, symbolizing the manifested; one sees shapes and solids taking form in the darkness.

This is spiritual, primal and sacred to me.

“Genesis”, Winner of People’s Choice Award - 1st Place (324 Artists from 41 States Competed) at Ashton Gallery’s Oct 2018 Juried National Exhibition, “Blackout” https://www.ashtonartgallery.com

Fierce demanded that I let nature exude via bold splatters, making its uncontrollable and fierce energetic presence felt. It expresses and drips fully, showing nature’s will, landing wherever my hands and nature choose.

This painting closely adheres to the Wabi-Sabi principles of minimalism, asymmetry, and irregularity while evoking the nature-inspired abstraction found in Shan Shui paintings.

The purposefully-textured whites contrast with the blank emptiness at the heart of the painting, serving as visual resting places, where what-should-be-said by the title of the painting, “Rice Paddy”, is left unsaid in the actual painting itself. I instead invite viewers to make an abstract impression and connection to a Rice Paddy landscape in our minds.

The shape of a mountain is the first clue. If you see the mountain; see if you see the lake to its left too.

If you see both, the Rice Paddy is just at the foot of the mountain lying across its front. As one explores further and peeling back the layers for a reveal, together we unearth the surprise beauty underneath the “Rice Paddy”. Its beauty lies not just in its simplicity but also shines through another hardly-cherished, rarely-expressed quality in our Post-Truth era: humbleness.

The scattering energy reflects years of cultivated art sense and seconds of courage splashed onto canvas, conveying audacity, force and speed - carefully-laid gesso textures and refined areas be damned. The result is a powerful breakthrough with little pretense. This piece was my first attempt in my wish to develop my Neo Wabi-Sabi art in our Post-Truth era. Not all the details were deliberately created by me but its spontaneous energy delighted me greatly. I did my part as a humbled man.  Nature also had its hand. Time and luck both participated. And I am grateful for the result. This was my “Breakthrough”.

A swirling awareness, ascending to merge with a dormant field of gold, suspended, frozen, waiting for the breakthrough.

This painting is an abstract depiction of transcendence unfolding, capturing the moment of the seeker merging with the brilliance of the everlasting within.

While the unplanned underlining textures became infinitely complex and rich in metallic hues, the overlays of protruding and reflective surfaces contrast, carve, and at times simplify the viewing planes under different ambient lights, bringing the painting’s multitudes of depth and dimension into a whimsical rhythm of delight.

Like a melting strawberry and caramel popsicle!

It’s difficult to appreciate the simple complexity of this fun piece digitally.  Viewing it in person, one can discover that the translucent layers shining through each other and reflecting lights beautifully. One particular spot actually reflects a rainbow spectrum of colors when properly lit. This piece has the Wabi-Sabi principles with a twist of sweet colors and playful execution.

One of my first experimental pieces (as I outgrew my representational art’s past; seen under “Shows & CV”).

“Sweet Tooth”, spotlighted at the June 2018 Juried Exhibition: Creamsicle, Ashton Gallery: https://www.ashtonartgallery.com