Commonwealth Ave III
by Yingxue Li
“My days often start with setting up a still life with a view outside the window or biking around Providence to find a landscape motif, such as ponds, woods, bridges, or tunnels. While intensively observing my chosen subject, I transcribe my spirit and thoughts through the back-and-forth acts of looking and creating. I constantly make marks, then erase and rearrange them, revealing my honest search, not a mere picture of a preconceived idea of how a subject appears. My works bear traces of covered and erased lines and repainted shapes and colors. Using multiple mediums, such as charcoal, pastel, ink, acrylic, oil, and collage on paper or canvas, I play with how laying in colors in different textures and brush strokes can connect with my observational experiences and internal thought processes. The continuous struggle between the two procedural modes in my practice—immersive looking and making use of what I perceive—emerges from my own personal history of existing between China and Western countries and the diverse philosophies in each culture. I believe the “self” is an illusion, Daoism’s concept of selflessness and the idea that existence is defined by our continuous search, doubting and actions of making decisions. I digest various cultural tensions, and they are expressed through emotional states, such as “meditative” and “ecstatic,” which I then re-locate in my works. Born in Anhui, China, where many traditional landscape painters are from, I carry with me the same longing for a quiet inner space and a pastoral lifestyle as these artists, even after many years of studying abroad. However, my family and my multicultural educational background have also taught me to continually look at things from different perspectives and question my initial point of view. My creative process, through painting and drawing, is my journey of navigating through such complex cultural influences. Between marking and looking is the experience of knowing and not knowing. Through painting and doubting, I process my existence and the world around me.”
Yingxue (Daisy) Li is a painter originally from Anhui, China, and currently resides in Providence, RI. She obtained her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015 and then worked as an art educator in Guangzhou, China. Later, she decided to continue her career as a painter, stayed and trained at Jerusalem Studio School from 2019 to 2020, and received her MFA in Painting at Boston University in 2024. Her paintings primarily focus on landscapes and still life, reflecting her ongoing exploration of pictorial possibilities and her contemplation of inner spiritual spaces in the contemporary world.
