Katherine Chang Liu

Really like the work of Katherine Chang Liu. Here's Qualia: texture, line, areas of smoky color, areas of layered complexity, tension between the shapes on the left and the shapes on the right, and that meandering yellow line leading down and away.

Must confess I had to go to the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy online to look up the title's meaning - philosophers refer to qualia as the introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives. Clear, no?

Actually, this helps: Feelings and experiences vary widely. For example, I run my fingers over sandpaper, smell a skunk, feel a sharp pain in my finger, seem to see bright purple, become extremely angry. In each of these cases, I am the subject of a mental state with a very distinctive subjective character. There is something it is like for me to undergo each state, some phenomenology that it has. Philosophers often use the term ‘qualia’ (singular ‘quale’) to refer to the introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives. For more, click here.
For less, read on.

I recall reading an interview she gave to VIVA (Valley Institute for Visual Arts) in Los Angeles sometime ago. She said something along the lines of "don't look too carefully at the work of artists whose works yours closely resembles - you don't want to become a clone."

Here's another of Katherine Chang Liu's that I will try not to look at too much: On Different Mornings.


Took a terrific workshop Saturday with Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch.
Trying to follow Liu's suggestion to figure out your strengths and work to build on them. Felt awkward and new, but here's what I came up with trying encaustic. Can always melt it and rework it.