the title of this new painting honors fang congyi (ca. 1301-after 1378). fang, steeped in daoist mysticism, painted landscapes that "gave shape to things that have no shape and returned things that have shape to the shapeless."
quote from: how to read chinese paintings, maxwell k. hearn
we were in denver for 24 hours. when we returned yesterday afternoon, the san luis valley was filled with smoke. the visibility was under 5 miles. we could barely see the sangre de christo mountains, less than 4 miles from our house, which mysteriously emerged from the smoke as they do in some of the tang & song paintings i love.
an alert had been issued for hazardous air quality. the strong, seasonal late spring winds had blown smoke from the wolf creek fire, one 9 fires currently burning in colorado and threatening the town of south fork.
DAY 1: fang creek 18x96" (2 canvases 18x48")
acrylic & collaged paper on canvas
STAGE 2
STAGE 3 june 23
smoke was once again blown into our valley when the wind shifted this afternoon, giving the normally crystal clear mountains a ghost like appearance.