Mimi Chen Ting – Artist Statement

When I enter the studio, I am like an irrepressible child, eager for play.  All that I am and encounter infects my imagination and imbues my motivation.  I thrill at making marks and cherish the meanderings each medium proffers. 

My initial approach to a canvas is purely experiential and physical.  Whether it is seeded in play or protest, I begin with a gestural drawing on an expanse of canvas pinned to the wall, the stick of charcoal acting as an extension of my arm.  I feel my way between alternating layering of paint and charcoal for what lies in wait, mining the incidental intersections, overlaps, and spaces in-between for clues and revelations, until I find resonance with shapes that emerge.  Then I erase or hide all that is superfluous, using the remaining lines and colors as the bedrock for expansion and elaboration.  Though impulse and uncertainty drive my process, I am mindful and deliberate in practice.  I enjoy nursing and teasing my shapes and colors until they butt against each other along edges that pull at and push into the adjacent spaces, struggling for middle-ground, leaving behind memories of their former selves.  Working this way challenges me to see with my mind that which is invisible to my eyes, enables me to shape the intangible, and allows me to invent my own rhythm.

While studio life is necessarily solitary, I am never far from the world, and all natural occurrences and political events lap at my consciousness.  The world is in flux.  Even though I cannot control what goes on, I can bear witness.  For example, “Island” remembers the earthquake and tsunami in Japan; “Nest 1” and “Nest 2”, “Breeze 1” and “Gold Hills” are the comfort and solace I want to offer; “Passages 1”, “Divertimento 3” and “Bridge 1” mark the paths to be traveled.  This spring, I hurt my back and truly learned to appreciate the importance of “My Sciatica”. For most of July this summer, with my home state of New Mexico surrounded by wild fires, and our beautiful mountain obscured by “Smoke”, I felt lost and longed for clarity.   Sometimes, a shot of energy come from within and “Swirls” like a hurricane.   “Mojo 1” and “Mojo 2” are these energies waiting to be tapped, ready to take action.  Even if “It Got Complicated”, I believe that if I am agile, adaptable, and determined, I can find my footing, maintain my bearing, and navigate my way forward.

Since I prefer to work on several pieces at one time, I enjoy the luxury of voicing different points of view, and examining the multiple facets of a single issue.  It is often like carrying on full-fledge discussions or arguments with myself.  These choruses can be raucous or pensive, or downright hilarious, and are almost always humbling.  At any rate, they never bore, and keep me tireless and restless.  As an artist, I am privileged to forge a path of my own choosing.  It is a journey that is long and often arduous.  Yet it must not be hurried, for every turn promises an adventure, and each passage takes me one step closer toward home.