Recluse Studio

"Recluse Studio" examines my appreciation for blue-green Chinese landscape painting and my efforts to transform this tradition, fusing ancient elements with new materials and approaches, to tell my story and consider current issues. To create this series, I begin by making a collage from an arrangement of torn fragments of ink washed traditional Chinese paper, on aluminum or Plexi. The original collage guides the structure of the emerging semi-abstract landscape. I try to avoid allowing my own mental imagery to overpower the forms already present within the fibrous textures and washes. Clear resin is then mixed with mineral pigments, chemical solvents, and acrylic, and poured over the original collage in layers. Using techniques including the use of a blowtorch and kitchen equipment, I manipulate each layer of resin as it is applied to conjure the atmosphere of the resulting piece. Through this process, I consider how modern technology and artificial materials communicate with natural materials and traditional approaches of the past, simultaneously polluting and revitalizing the landscape of the present. The depth of the resulting works, which cannot be fully captured in photographs, questions prevailing ideas about the flatness and two-dimensionality of traditional Chinese paintings.