Mei Art Prints and Posters
The artist Mei was born in 1956 in a suburb of Chongqing in the People’s Republic of China. Living by the Yangtze River, she found herself drawn to watching the water and the constant flow of life around it – people in boats and on the shore – their lives taking on rhythms much like the ones in the songs they sang. The lasting impact of this experience is expressed by the movement in Mei’s work, “the life that should float through all paintings,” observes the artist.
A sense of spirit and harmony in her work has been richly influenced by the post- impressionist painters Henri Matisse and Vincent Van Gogh. Matisse’s use of a broad stroke of brilliant color or distortion of shape to convey emotion “are to me heavenly and pure,” says the artist. “There is a quietness and peace in his work that is spiritual.” Mei admires Van Gogh for painting from his soul rather than his eyes, allowing his passion to shine brilliantly through.
Mei studied at the Department of Crafts and Art Design at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in 1982. Further study brought a Certificate in Decoration and Design from Nanjing Art Institute in 1985, and a Certificate in Multimedia Design from Lehigh Carbon Community College in Pennsylvania in 2002. She was an Assistant and Associate Professor at her alma mater for 13 years, as well as a Visiting Artist at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. She is a Fellow with The Academy of Arts of China and a Member of The Committee of Lacquer Painting Arts of China.
Mei spends her leisure time listening to music – swept up by the feeling of being in another world. She also relishes working in her garden: “I feel I am creating new life in a pleasant environment. This is exactly what I like to do in my artwork.”
