To view selected paintings click the images below. Click through the links to view the entire portfolio.

Yuefen Pai (girly posters)
Pulp Fiction
Portraits
God on a Stick
Skool Dayz

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My Korean grandfather Wook Moon met my Chinese grandmother Shay Young in Shanghai in the 30’s. He worked in import/export and she taught English at Shanghai University. In 1939 when Japan invaded China they moved back to the then American Common Wealth, Hawaii.

The Yuefen Pai series has allowed me to explore my mixed Asian /American heritage. These Yuefen Pai images also represent the beginning of the post colonial era. I’m interested in post-colonial aesthetics as it unfolds throughout Asia. This can be seen in Edo Japan and Independent India as well. In the following series I explore this genera.

“Two Girls Brand” 2003 appeared in Showtime’s series The L Word

Japanese art played an important role in early modernism in Europe. The French couldn’t get enough of those Japanese woodblock prints. Thematically these prints were called, Ukiyo-e (en.”Floating World”.) The genera developed during the Tokugawa Shogunate, a time of relative peace in Japan where urban culture flourished. Ukiyo-e artists depicted scenes of everyday urban life, Kabuki, the brothels, portraits of pop icons and teahouse girls. These paintings and prints were in fact advertising for entertainment and sex—the pleasures of the floating world.

My multi-culti upbringing has caused a love and obsession with the intersection of east and west. Next stop Bollywood.

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Studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2005

I’ve re-cast the cover girls using friends and friends of friends who have enthusiastically dressed up or down to portray real life characters who queer gender along its spectrum. There is one image in the slideshow below, inspired by an old tango poster, not exactly pulp but still campy. It was explained to me that Tango developed in the dance halls and bars of Argentina during a time when there was an influx of male immigrants from Europe looking for work. At night these boys would hang out and for lack of female companions danced with each other.

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The answer I thought must be found somewhere in the Renaissance. I thought that if I could reconnect with the birth of oil painting I would understand Western Painting’s reason for being. It then occurred to me that in order to truly understand Renaissance artists one had to really understand Christianity and in order to do that one has to go to the Holy Land. After my pilgrimage I didn’t understand anymore about painting and understood even less about Christianity.

Studio in Bed-Sty, Brooklyn, 2000

I grew up in a hyper religious family. My mother was raised by her Korean Methodist grandmother but also taken to the Buddhist temple regularly by her Chinese Popo. My father was raised Catholic and was encouraged to join the seminary by his parish priest when he was a teen. My father and mother became born again Christians in the early 70’s when laying on of hands and speaking in tongues was new and edgy.

The first mantra taught to me at age 7 was ‘Namo Guan Shih Yin Pusa,’ Praise Kuan Yin Goddess of Mercy. The second mantra I learned was ‘Praise Jesus, Praise the Lord.’ I was introduced to yoga through meditation when I was 18. I enjoy religion, religious lore, ceremoney and I’m glad there are many paths to the one.

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13 years after I painted my classmate Gerald posing with this lion, an anonymous Saudi oil princess bought the painting. I was very surprised. I think the appeal must have been the Assyrian lion or the Ishtar Gate. Maybe it was the nudity I’m not totally sure, but it did pay the rent.

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For better or worse the camera has replaced sketching for many contemporary realist painters. No one is trained in the Ecole des Beaux Arts tradition anymore. What’s nice though is capturing moments that happen in instances that you can’t get when someone has to sit still for hours on end.

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Five years ago I founded a lesbian arts and culture publication called Velvetpark. It was created from scratch by a handful of friends, stranger who became friends, writers, photographers, artists and pop culture aficionados.

We have published print 12 issues and now we host a multi-platform website check it out here, Velvetpark Media.