The sights, sounds and smells of Beijing, China permeated my senses the moment I arrived and drove the flower bedecked freeways to our hotel, a converted monastery in Old Beijing.

The polite and professional steff at the 500 year old monastery, Soluxe, became a living bridge to the past in the faces of these young people, some meeting a person from the Western world for the first time, I saw a direct connection to their past culture, traditions and spirituality. The bridge presented a dichotomy of a past and future environment.

These paintings are the messages from the young people I met in Beijing. The new works speaks not of the forms but of the forces and intensities, not of stabilities but of the dynamics the youth encounter as they draw from their past; the tombs, ancient elders and historic palaces so revered by the people of China.

The layers you see are my attempt to show the viewer all the events that went into the making of the paintings. There are conceptual possibilities in the pictorial space when one pushes the paint around and through and ultimately off the picture plane.

Enjoy,

Patricia

Old Walks
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There is a marble design at walk-way at the Forbidden City that was burned during a fire  in the 15th century.  The ashes have never been removed from the marble. Here, I am showing some of the designs from this marble walkway, and blending the stele's within the images. 

Ming Elders
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Because of the millions of people in China, I am showing the crowdedness and the density of the population of the country.

Pinyin "Long City Fortress"
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The Chinese call the Great Well the "Great City" because of the two to three million workers buried there during the construction. Stone and earthen walls were built between the 5th century and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from attacks. The wall was heavily protected for centuries of dynasties until the Ming Dynasty. In 1644 some gateways were opened by a General sympathetic to the Manchus of northern China and allowed the Manchus to overrun Beijing. The Manchus destroyed the Ming Dynasty and established the Qing Dynasty.

Although this looks like a traditional landscape, some elements are present to explore. You will see the images of people floating in various parts of the painting. Also the squares you see floating in the foreground represent the watchtowers the soldiers inhabited to protect the Chinese Empire. These watchtowers were about 1/2 mile apart the entire 4,000 miles. I let drips occur at random points in the painting to remind me of the gravity and heaviness of the wall's construction.

Celia
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