CATHY LIU

cathy liu 

I met this amazing artist last Thursday in my museum studies class whom we are going to show in November. She's the type of artist that really hit close to home with her organic abstract art pieces. They just really make you feel good. They don't really have a message that she's trying to push out except the  one message: "How does it make you feel?"and have it interpreted by the viewer--you.

The form of her pieces with pure color, elegant curves and lines are shown in very pure and simplistic ways. She told us that she already visualizes colors in her head and puts them down on canvas. They usually resemble biological organisms, plants, or whatever you desire them to look like. It makes you think about growth, development, fetuses, water droplets. 

  

She talked about how they emphasize a kind of "push and pull" or as she put it, "tension and balance." They relax her. That's the thing that made me think. Whenever I try to draw or paint, I only do it when I really feel happy and it comes out great or when I'm really upset, which 99% of the time I end up hating the piece.

Cathy Liu also gives small rocks or pieces of driftwood to friends with little words or a small design on them as trades, which I thought was great. Fix the pipes under my sink, thanks so much, here's a token of my sincerest gratitude. It's like a portable art piece that looks really good and makes you feel good. I wouldn't mind having a cute rock in my pocket, it's a nice conversation starter.

I also liked how she doesn't want them to be commercialized, as they are very personal to her. She has received comments to having her artwork becoming posters to be sold at Target or be hung in college dorms and textiles.  Her heart goes into every piece. I know every artist feels that way. I know I do.