Black and Blue Residue Paintings

These paintings are an exploration into how I learn and heal from my emotional wounds received by my families, my culture and myself. We all carry these wounds that have influenced how we live our lives, often without our knowledge.

Unlike a physical wound, emotional wounds appear under the surface of our daily façade but have no physical signs. To understand how they affect us, we need our wounds to be visible to know them, accept them, learn from them and heal ourselves and our world.

With bold black and blue marks on paper, I use physical motion to turn hidden emotions into the residue of physical wounds – black and blue bruises. The marks are layered onto the surface of the paper with different plaster trowls and pressure. Paint is then washed away in areas, exposing the underlying the texture, and complexity we all possess – our authentic self, that wounds conceal.

The boldness and directness of my black and blue residue paintings are about the energy of physical motion and the clarity it creates.