artist statements

Gentrification series:

As of recent, I have been working on a series of ink paintings to reflect the impact of accelerated gentrification and densification of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, BC. This has been two fold and has divided the city with 50 percent owners of properties and the other 50 percent renting residences. Those who own properties are fortunate and often welcome the gentrification as they see their property values escalate rapidly. However, on the other side, speculation has fuelled the aggressive behaviour of transactions driving many away from owning homes and others into impoverished living conditions or homelessness. This rapid speculation and skyrocketing prices were first demonstrated in South America and worked so well there with little state involvement, that it was tried here in Vancouver next, again with little interference by the government. In my India ink paintings I am showcasing shiny buildings and also grittier buildings being built, letting the observer decide which way they think of the building boom we are having in Vancouver and large parts of Canada. These paintings come from my imagination and from wandering around Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. I let my imagination override the literal descriptions of developments and generalize gentrification to an anywhere city. Each painting is a microcosm of what is happening. When all of the images are put together, they operate as a macrocosm of city gentrification and densification. I have painted 158 images so far in this series and as of late started producing more.....


Interface series:

Interface is concerned with how the technology of cell phones effect our lives. This exhibition is a celebration and also a critique of the ever prevalent technology of cell phones we all use on a daily basis. In the paintings I show the energy that is being transmitted everywhere. The brushstrokes have to do with our age of technology. Cell phone technology blurs the distinction between being in the city or being in nature. All it takes is one quick call in the middle of a forest in the middle of nowhere to make a person be transported back to city life immediately. My paintings of other worldly colours and unnaturally shaped skies of rows and columns suggests the pervasiveness of this technology in our everywhere environment. 

Crescendo of Silence series:

Crescendo of silence has to do with how a forest clarifies the amount of sound or lack of sound as one penetrates further back into the forest. As one gets further back into the forest, it almost becomes a booming silence. In these paintings, they are musical in nature and the structure of the trees to one another are set in arpeggios and chord progression intervals. As an avid hiker, I am constantly listening to music in my head as I explore the mountains of the North Shore and Squamish areas. These paintings come indirectly from those explorations and the music in them.