Yuewan Chen

“It is often claimed that the affective power of painting surpasses reason and cannot be captured in words.” This statement informs my work as I try to engage my audience with a sense of strong spiritual healing through the visual impact of the subject matter of crystals.

My practice demonstrates a manner of spiritual healing from mental disorder. The subject matters I convey through distinctive materiality in my paintings are natural crystals and gemstones. According to cultural metaphysical theory that is now widely accepted, natural crystals carry different magnetic energy fields, which can eliminate people's misfortune, purify people's minds and protect them from disasters. This reflects people's desire to eliminate negative factors from both material and spiritual worlds. It seems to me that the invisible energy field is a new, working parallel universe that is generated by human desire. Therefore, I intend to visualize this new parallel universe, corresponding it to the overall artistic construction of the natural crystals. I believe that one can never be completely free from the negative aspects of life. One can mentally suffer from intrusive thoughts as well as being an optimist. Thus, the existence of a parallel universe (of the energy field), can undoubtedly be soothing and healing. Pain can potentially be dissolved through art and my paintings aim to play the same role as the natural crystals I depict. As I artistically describe a crystalized energy field, my paintings also become a new universe for spiritual healing.