While I was a medical student and, later on, as a psychiatry resident, there was never any time to devote to art. Never, until I visited the Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan, in November of 2000.
Whether because I had more time to think for myself (I was well on my way to establishing my private practice and feeling more secure professionally), or because of the breathtaking beauty of Japanese brush painting masterpieces of the Edo period of the 1600s, or because of the deep and magical pull that Japanese Buddhist art and philosophy always had on me, I decided upon my return home to Los Angeles that I would try to learn Chinese and Japanese brush painting.
Ms. Linco Chao, who taught at that time at Santa Monica College, initiated me into Chinese brush painting. Later on, my next teacher, Ms. Angela Hsin, introduced me to Ling-Nan style. But Ms. Hsin retired, and I’ve found myself again in search of a new teacher.
This is how I started studying with Mr. Bryan Ricci, an abstract artist specializing in acrylic painting and a very gifted art teacher. He believes in experiencing art through experimentation. He allows his students the freedom to chose unhindered the style, medium and composition that is best suited for each one’s individual artistic vision and skills. Under his guidance, I have been learning how to use acrylics and mixed media, integrating skills and composition ideas from brush painting into new mediums. After years of painting with ink on rice paper, exploring new mediums gave me the freedom of expression I was looking for. This gradually led me to abstract painting.
Around the same time, I was deepening my clinical intuition in psychotherapy under the guidance of my professional mentor, Dr. Terry Marks-Tarlow, who has studied and written extensively on the subject. Somehow, in this process of developing and trusting my intuition in my work as a psychiatrist, my artistic creativity also grew in freedom of expression and inspiration.
Experiencing art through experimentation, I discovered that abstract art offers infinite modalities of expression made possible by the endless versatility of modern acrylic paints and mediums. I find myself deeply immersed in the study of color and in the depiction of, not the actual beauty of an object of inspiration, but of the complexity of emotions triggered by it. Evolving and incorporating my traditional skills of brush painting with the free strokes and flow of abstract painting I find myself moving away from clearly defined shapes, shifting the emphasis from shape to color and from pictorial to emotional.
I love my colors warm, bright and harmoniously blending together—a beautiful experience for the eye to embrace and an invitation for the mind to ponder. Mirroring my work as a psychiatrist with my work as an artist, I try to convey to my viewers the same message I give everyday to my patients: We can find comfort and strength in the immense beauty residing in ourselves and in the powerful connections we have with everything that surrounds and unites us. My art work is infused with a state of hope, well-being, joy and uplifting energy. It is the contemplation of endless possibilities of becoming a happier, more creative and more compassionate being.