| Arena Shawn was a science major and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics in 2008 from Purdue University. However, alongside science she has always had a passion for art. After coming to United States for graduate school, Arena took the opportunity to attend many art classes provided by the university, and attended painting workshops around the country with nationally-renowned instructors. Eventually, her calling to art has led her to leave her technical job as an Application Scientist in a scientific instrument company in Silicon Valley. She is currently studying classical drawing and painting methods following the 19th-century French academic lineage in the Golden Gate Atelier in San Francisco.
In her pursuit of art, Arena tries to use brush and paints to reflect the quiet lights, subtle colors and playful shapes exhibited by seemingly mundane, everyday objects. Striving for the emotional quality of every piece she has created, Arena hopes that her work would be able to reach out and connect with their viewers, evoking the sense of wonder and awe of our everyday life that are so often taken as granted. Her primary working methods involves direct application of wet watercolor to saturated paper surface to create the fluidic appearance and organic patterns that borderlines representational and abstract nature, with special attentions paid to create strong value patterns and varied edge quality. |
