Dilatation of Botanical Color

By Kong Ho

Piece description from the artist

Sumptuously painted in a technique consisting of free-flowing wave-like patterns held in check by subtly controlled washes of glaze and exacting trompe l'oeil floras and shells, my floral-spiral paintings exemplify the theme and style indicative of my ongoing body of work, the "Luminosity Series." In my recent series, I have created an asymmetrical composition by off-setting the circular shapes of the primary spiral of the nautilus shell and the floral image, against the angular edges of the squared off canvas. Further interest is added to the composition through the articulation of the nautilus shell's segments and the structure of flora. I achieve a feeling of dramatic motion by obliterating portions of my ornately patterned objects by merging them with a background of sweeping ribbons, rippling draping, folding petal veins, floating seashells, and dancing stripes. My composition is supported by a dense spatial field of interpreted interactions of forms and patterns found in nature. These patterns include repetitive clusters of meandering lines and portioned color filled areas that suggest ambiguous space. Rhythmic movement is created from a simultaneous growth and dissolution of both shell and flora with the background. A sense of fundamental transformation for which no beginning and end can be discovered evolves from my work. Contrasting colors with spontaneous meandering lines, precisely rendered symbols and improvised random patterns, add to the feeling of engagement with rather than separation from my bicultural life experience of Eastern and Western cultures and transcendental belief in Taoism and Zen Buddhism.