May Shei

About

My devotion to art started way before I went to preschool. I painted and made crafts all the time. I grew up in a small town in Taiwan, where the traditional Hakka culture was everywhere. From antique house decorations and paintings, to murals and sculptures in the temples, my childhood was a combination of the old and the new. We also lived in a national park, so the environment was full of beautiful life objects and landscapes. It was like an art book everywhere to me.

I left my home to study art at 16 years old. After I graduated college, worked in Kua-Hua Advertising Ltd for two years, then I got married and had two kids. Throughout it all, I never stopped illustrating and making art. I participated in international art competitions, was juried in and received a wide variety of awards.

Because of my background- a major of commercial art design and a minor in Chinese painting, oil, and watercolor, I use different elements like "point ", "line", and "space " in my pieces, along with bright color on silk or rice paper. My art mirrors my life journey.

I now teach Contemporary Chinese painting, and it's never an easy job. To teach Chinese painting, you need to be familiar with 5000 years of history, the language, and deal with the difficulty of finding special materials. It's worth teaching to see people from all backgrounds and histories taking my class, forming relationships with them and seeing the fruits of their hard work.

Life is so unpredictable, but I feel blessed to look back at my life and see all the influences and people who have helped me along the way.

The well-known artist, George Rivera, former executive Senior Curator and Director of the Triton Museum of Art, said my abstract contemporary Chinese paintings are "Beautiful, and strong, powerful mood, atmosphere, and emotion". I dedicate these wonderful words to all my dear family and friends.