The concept of “No mind” is the guiding principle on this piece, painted in the early weeks of the Quarantine 2020. I wanted to know what would happen if I wasn’t afraid of “what would happen.” What if I only know the centimeter of paper that is directly beneath my brush and nothing more? Can I live with that lack of certainty? Can something beautiful emerge even if you don’t know how?

The result contains magnolia blossoms just beginning to open, and a full moon (which, while it shows ripening or fullness, is also only found on the eve of a new moon, which invites the shedding of old structures and strictures and making way for all new things). This piece, therefore, feels very transitional and transformative. It speaks of renewal and possibility, the intuitive/yin energy of the moon, and the sure-footedness of the crane, a creature that is thought in Chinese lore to be a bridge or a messenger between worlds.

Transitions and transformations can be difficult, frightening even. And so I paired it with calligraphy that reads, “Trust. Life is beautiful.” Not beautiful in the nice and lovely way of the shallow hedonist. The fish, dangling helplessly in the crane’s mouth, reminds us of that. But rather in the way of writer, John O’Donohue, who said that "Beauty is about more rounded, substantial becoming." (emphasis added). Sometimes we are the crane. Sometimes we are the fish. Trust. Life is beautiful.

This piece is hand-painted on an elegant shuen paper with a subtle sheen and backed with “dragon cloud” mulberry paper, which lends the fibrousness in the finished product. The piece measures approximately 26 x 52” and comes rolled in a tube, ready for custom framing by the customer.

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