I am a visual artist, living and working in Montreal, Quebec. My work is abstract in nature and includes contemporary tableaux of ink and wash on rice paper, oil on canvas, and mixed media. My art education includes Fine Art (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada); New Media Design (Centennial College, Toronto, Canada); Industry Art & Design (Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, HeNan, China).
My work is inspired by my experience of life’s beauty and fragility, which I express through my intuitive and spontaneous brush strokes. Living through breast cancer and walking the difficult path of survival have dramatically altered my perspective, and my work explores the gamut of emotions I felt as a result of this journey – fear, disappointment, anger, humiliation, gratitude, joy, excitement, love, hope, and many other feelings too numerous to name. This experience has led me to a richer understanding of life and love, and through my painting, I reflect on the interplay between memory and creation, and I attempt to interpret my experiences somewhere between objectivity and abstraction.
After I was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, my work became a series of reflections on the nature of existence. In many ways, I was lost, and I did not know how long I had to live; naturally, my thoughts turned to questions like “What are we living for?” So my paintings began to reflect my mental and spiritual state and were extensions of my philosophical musings; I worked mostly with ink, and the colours that dominated the canvas were black, white, and grey.
Ten years after my first diagnosis, and many rounds of treatment later, my body was recovering. Throughout this period, my soul was also living a kind of recovery, for I had found faith in God and was growing in the confidence that when this life came to an end, a new life would begin. Put simply, this process of renewal had reoriented my approach towards life and had given me new values. It is not surprising that with these changes, my painting style was also transformed. My works became brightly-coloured, light-hearted reflections of the gratitude that was fundamental to my new outlook. I believe that through this process I have come to a deeper understanding of life, for I know now that it is not just about sorrow and suffering but about joy and hope; if we don’t have love, our life is dark.
At present, and especially because we are living through a global pandemic, many of us are more sensitive to the importance both of healthy living and of ensuring that we experience every moment to its fullest. A great number of us, myself included, are fortunate that we still have our life and health and that we can use them for good. For the artist, creation is a symbol of a life force; I hope to continue to create, for not only does it lead to personal inspiration, but it is also an expression of the deepest respect for life.