For a while I did a lot of abstract expressionism with a lot of action, a lot of gestural drawings and lines. I liked it because all those lines came from unconscious physical movement, and I tried to express emotion through all of the variations of energy, speed, thickness and thinness. But I finally hit an artist’s block, because unverbalized emotion is limiting for me. It was frustrating; I wanted to go in a new direction.

 So one day, very humbly, I started to make these round things. I felt like “I’m a terrible painter. At least I know how to make circles.” So one by one, with a wholehearted sincerity, I started to make these circles. One of my friend’s nieces made a scribbled painting with a lot of round shapes. When asked about them, the niece said, “Oh, this one is my mom, and this is my aunt.” All these circles represented humans to her. And it really hit me. It really fit my purpose and meaning in a way I had felt only vaguely before, but now felt much more tangibly.

After that, it was like learning to drive. At first, you feel like it’s difficult and you don’t have control, but soon you’re picking up speed and feeling comfortable in your actions. I realized that without human beings and relationships, nothing in life means anything. Humans are the base, the foundation of my life and my work. Each circle is a person, connected with those around it. These connections form like a net. Every hole may have flaws or shortcomings or pain, but they’re all linked to each other, like we are, and through these links we heal each other and give meaning to life. If one hole breaks, it’s like a tear in the fishing net; it affects us all.

The creation process felt very healing. All of these circles had lots of potential meanings: they could be eternity; they could be like the two rings of marriage, or life and death, or day and night. I wanted these circles to create something visually beautiful. I want to experiment with size and layers, layers that can represent all of the people we meet in our life. Some come and go; some disappear beneath the layers, like strata.

 Right now, my direction is circles: some are somber, the way we go through difficult periods in life, but sometimes we are happy, so I want to reflect that. Some of my circles are serene; at that time I was sick and low on energy, and I wanted to create a more mature response. And some circles are playful and childlike and reflect that emotional space.