I had an existential painter’s crisis during my MFA thesis program. “How does a figurative oil painter justify her existence in the contemporary art world? With all the ‘new media’ what does it mean to paint the figure anymore?”

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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