I started my software career writing code for a social network platform. I never would have guessed that years later, the site would enable me to learn Chinese brush painting while in the mountains of Colorado. The minified JavaScript in the background of the painting is code from Ning.com, a Silicon Valley unicorn hopeful that faded from prominence. Despite the site’s drop in popularity, it enabled me to be closer to my heritage.

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This piece is composed of 3 separate paintings cut up and layered over each other. The mounting technique used doesn't follow traditional wet mounting that would wet the entire painting and stretch it as it dries. Since the paintings are cut and layered, I had to use a dry mounting technique that involved ironing silicone to the back.

To get the text, I cut rice paper to size and mounted it onto a thicker paper and through a printer. (The first time I tried running rice paper through the printer, it jammed the printer 😆 so that's why I used a thicker paper.) I really love the contrast between the precise printed text and the organic ink brush strokes. The contrast between the print, the gradient mountains, the line work of rock and the softness of flower petals adds an array of textural variety.