Serenity – Art in Meditation

My artistic journey took a profound turn after a debilitating back injury. Forced to the sidelines, I found solace and healing through yoga, a practice that not only restored my physical well-being but also ignited a new artistic passion. While my love for painting has been a constant since childhood, my fine art and graphic design worlds remained distinct. Yoga bridged that gap. It became a spiritual and physical lifeline, guiding my personal evolution and catharsis, transforming my pain and anger into joy and a deep appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. Yoga helped restore my body to make art again, and as I drew on yoga to return to the studio the newly meditative process of artistic creation also began crossing former creative boundaries. This transformation inspired my current body of work: expressive yoga figures.

My creative process now seamlessly blends my artistic background with my yoga practice. Working with paint and brush as well as digitally with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Fresco, I create multi-layered and nuanced pieces, merging fine art principles with the design sensibilities honed through my graphic design experience. These digital creations are then printed on canvas, enhanced with hand-painted details, and presented as traditional Asian scrolls, resisting the confines of a frame. The scroll format, like the yoga practice itself, emphasizes fluidity and freedom, reflecting the meditative flow of my creative process. The scale of these works varies, from intimate 8” x 16” pieces to large-scale installations reaching four feet wide and ten feet high.

The interchange of energy and breath between my physical yoga practice and my artistic process is central to my work. Just as yoga fosters lightness and flexibility, so too does my art-making. My deep spiritual connection to yoga fuels my creativity, allowing me to express the essence of the practice through my art, a form of meditation in itself. Having always incorporated nature and the natural world into my art, I continue this exploration in my yoga-inspired works, intertwining challenging asanas (yoga poses) with images of nature’s growth, such as leaves or eclipses, reflecting my own connection to the environment. Whether depicting a challenging asana or incorporating the majestic form of an ancient oak, like the one at San Felasco State Park that inspired my painting “Ancient Oak Tree Pose,” my work invites viewers to experience the peace and inspiration I have found through yoga and the meditative creation of art. It is my hope that these pieces offer a moment of serenity, a space for contemplation, and a connection to the mind, body, and spirit, echoing the very essence of this exhibition.