Chris Chou, Six Jars, 2006, oil painting, 104 x120cm. Boston

Painting is an attitude about life

Painting gives me faith, because I know what I have been through

Painting teaches me to be humble, because there are so many things I do not know

I want to paint what I see

I see things very directly

 I only select the form or color which really speak to me

I am using personal symbols to tell the story of thing which I care

 They come from nature and the relationship between people/things and God/me

Much of my painting is about building layer after layer of paint

I do this both for the texture and for the stories

They can be read as a history of the canvas

different time in one stage and as the mass of color they become

I love color

I paint the color of red

I want to push red as far as it can go

Red is hot, red is blood, red is energy

I love form

I draw the form of circle

It could be an egg: the life itself

It could be a watermelon: the fruit that I enjoy

It could be a window: to lead you to another landscape

It could be an eye: but what an eye

Life is not easy but still beautiful

Using color and form, I want to focus on that beauty

I want use it to share, to comfort, and to celebrate

My need is to go beyond pretty to encompass true beauty

My mission is to bring fresh light to things so familiar that we no longer notice them

I want to make people look at them as if for the first time

with the excitement of a child receiving a new gift

Painting is my prayer

Through my painting

May you smell different season of life

Have a date with surprise! Or… just simply a smile.

Chris Lan Hui Chou

Visual artist and a Guggenheim Fellow (2007) living in Boston. View her works online: Chris Chou (FB account)

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