About
Art for me is a journey for exploration and reflection
Biography
Carol Liu is a painter from Toronto. She immigrated from China in 2010. She studies at Queen’s University and will be completing her BFA this year. Her current focus is oil painting and its potential to explore culture.
Artist Statement
My work is driven by my interest in exploring historic and present day mythologies. Humankind has perpetuated its own teachings throughout history through time honoured traditions of storytelling. Some of these are verbal, some are illustrated, and some are written. My oil paintings are illustrations of my attempt to remove them from specific historical contexts in order to form new perspectives and interpretations. Through this process, I wish to showcase the flexibility and novelty of legends, for they are very strange, fascinating, and multipurpose.
The mythological creature named Peryton is said to be a winged deer casting a shadow of man, and only by killing a man can it set its soul free and cast its own shadow. The legend also places Peryton as one of the critical phenomenon leading to the fall of Rome.
The mythological creature known as the tooth fairy, a tiny winged human-like creature that exchange money for fallen baby teeth as the popular tale goes, is meant to ease children’s fear and pain during the process of changing tooth. Interestingly, because of the durable quality of teeth, it is historically considered as a magical object to ward off evil spirits.
Another example of a mythological creature is called Xingtian, a headless deity who took on this look because he persevered fighting against the King of all gods after being beheaded. He is looked up as a symbol of courage and resistance.
As someone who loves illustration and stories, I am interested in myths in particular because the imagined images fascinate me and inspire me to paint my own interpretations.
My artistic inspirations are from: Richard Orient, Paul Saari, and Celia Neubauer’s work to create otherworldly painterly effects; Alex Kanevsky for painting technique; Erin Loree, and Carol Wainio’s work for the playfulness in the process; and James Jean Rebus’ work for illustrational examples of otherworldly perspective.