When I first came cross Li Chevalier’s painting, I was immediately attracted to it, but at the same time puzzled: the clouds, waves, and sometime architectural elements that we are all familiar with, but their appearance and composition are so foreign from our daily experience.  They are mysterious figures who talk over your head in dreams–you seem to have some sort of comprehension of the utterance, but find hard to define it using words, just like the old saying “It is perceived in understanding rather than expressed by language [zhi ke yi hui, bu key an chuan]” .

The contradiction as well as fusion of the East and West can be seen in the materials employed by Li Chevalier–Ink on canvas.  Ink is the oldest and most popular colorant in Asia, made of soot and a mixture of other mineral, animal or plant ingredients. The evaluation and criteria for an artist is largely based on his or her skills of using brush with ink. Canvas, on the other hand, is the main medium for oil painting in the West after the Renaissance, as a less expensive replacement for wooden panels.  In Li Chevalier’s painting, the two materials from different traditions meet together, embracing each other and creating a magical effect.  I have tried to find the exact meaning in her painting, but failed.  The failure leads me to a new transcendental experience, a realization and transformation of my own identity in the world we live in today.