CHERRY BLOSSOMS

My Cherry Blossom series is where I feel myself opening into movement, color, and freedom. The cherry blossom has always been close to me because of my Asian cultural roots, but I don’t paint it simply as a symbol of tradition. A somber recognition of its fleeting beauty is what provokes the inspiration for this work.  A blossom appears, moves with the wind, falls, and disappears. There is something so beautiful about knowing that a moment will not stay.

After years of working primarily in black and white, I started allowing myself to move more freely.  Color entered the work almost like emotion.  Brushstrokes became movement.  Petals became energy.  The paintings became less about describing a flower and more about capturing a feeling that cannot be held still.

This series also came from a very personal place.  After experiencing deep loss and pain, I had to discover ways to look at life differently.  I began to understand that celebrating life doesn’t mean forgetting what we’ve lost.  It means learning to hold the sadness and the beauty at the same time.  The cherry blossom became a reminder for me to keep loving, creating, and noticing the beautiful moments while they are here.

My culture is still deeply inside these paintings, but now I have more freedom to express it in my own language.  I can take something familiar and let it become abstract, emotional, physical, and completely mine.

What is especially exciting is watching these blossoms leave my studio and begin to take life within the community. This new work has been embraced through fundraisers and art auctions, and the imagery continues to grow as displays in public art.  I am currently commissioned to create a large-scale cherry blossom mural for a new affordable housing community in Sacramento.

This journey has meant a lot to me.  Something that began as an expression of my personal connection to my native culture, intertwined with memories, loss, and healing, has morphed into something I now get to create for others to immerse themselves in on a new scale.  One visible to the masses of our community, appreciated by more people a once naive Chinese girl landing in America could have dreamed of.

Maybe that is what I love most about the cherry blossom.  It doesn’t belong to one person.  It blooms, touches someone, and keeps moving.

I paint the blossom because it will fall.

I paint the movement because it cannot be held.

I paint the color because, after darkness, I choose to celebrate being alive.