The Shattered Mirror Technique
I have been developing a new technique that involves broken mirrors as a way of expanding the space of the painting and creating a new, poetic reality. This new technique is a natural extension of my artistic philosophy of using art as a cultural bridge. I’ll be unveiling the first 3 paintings with this new technique at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China.
The new “shattered mirror paintings” merge 3 worlds: (1) the Artistic Reality of the ink brush paintings, (2) the abstract “mechanical wave” patterns of shattered mirror squares, rearranged artistically and (3) the inserted-into-the-painting reflection (of viewer and environment where the painting is located)—but fragmented and refracted through the work of art.
Together, the 3 merging realities create a 4th reality-—poetic, geometrical and photorealistic at the same time. It is a new place where art serves as a flexible and embracing framework to organize both the physical world and the world of ideas and vision.
Three Artworks
The three paintings that will be exhibited in Dalian are:
1) Woman in Xinghai Square, Dalian
- The Chinese woman I painted in the foreground of Xinghai Square is contemplative-- perhaps she is reflecting on China past and future, or perhaps more on personal elements of her life, or both, as the two are so intertwined... I wanted to put a human face on this dynamic city. In this work, the mirror shard paths create auras around visible and hidden objects in the painting.
2) Dalian Shipyard
- In this painting, I am engaged with Dalian as a center of economic and technological progress, and also Dalian as a major port connecting China to the world (both practically, and metaphorically through forums hosted there such as WEF). Everything in this painting is huge and massive-- the cranes soaring into the sky, and the large ship they are building. The mirror fragments here build up the monumentality of the painting.
3) Dalian Kelp Harvest
- The kelp harvest in Dalian fascinated me—such an old, traditionally Asian activity. I liked painting the long slippery ropes of kelp piled high on boats and pulled up by cranes glistening in the sun. The subject matter is an interesting combination of old and new-- a very traditional activity done in a new way. In this work, the mirror shards follow the turbulent patterns of the Pacific Ocean’s waves.None of these patterns are static—they have the rapid movement of the shattering glass built into them. There are also a number of “hidden messages” that only a very careful examiner of the mirror patterns would notice—reflecting collectivism and individualism, freedom and power—not just in China, but more generally the world.
A new way of creating negative space
An aspect of this technique that particularly fascinates me is that negative space is created through the selective covering of portions of the painting with the mirror shards, which in their turn serve as windows into the day-to-day reality of the “real world,” filling the negative space of the painting literally with the changing and fragmented images of our day-to-day lives. When strategically placing negative space in my paintings, I have always tried to infuse them with the changing experiences of the viewer. I would do that by leaving my paintings intentionally “unfinished” so that the viewer can complete them upon each viewing. I think of the viewing of one of my paintings as collaboration between the painting and the mind of the viewer. This new technique is a natural extension of my artistic philosophy.