Vivian Wenhuey Chen, Painter
More than thirty years ago, I started my art career as an abstract painter. Between 2000 and 2016, I transitioned to abstract representation or Mimetic-Abstract Hybrid. Today my focus is on pure abstraction, or Fully Abstract. Instead of showing some faint shade of an observable world object, I seek to catch the mood of my subject matter.
My current work is infused with my Asian heritage: its religions, its cultures and its painting styles. I have taken scriptures from Buddhism and Daoism and repeat those characters in Chinese brush writing styles, to add layers upon layers with different colors, until I reach a meditative state and the paintings fully manifest. My paintings become mindless, reflecting the Eastern philosophy that mindlessness is full.
I have also executed a series of automatic drawings centered on catching the Eastern ethos. I use pencil, charcoal, graphite and Chinese ink to draw on the collage of a medley of papers, such as mulberry tree balk paper from Central Asia, Chinese ink paper, temple prayer paper or cotton wrapping paper, on Vellum paper. Some of these drawings ask for and get a dash of color.
