Exploring states 'between dreaming and reality'

Exploring states 'between dreaming and reality'
Friday, October 12, 2007
By JANET PURCELL
Special to the Times

Excerpted from the Trenton Times at www.nj.com

Sauman Choy began her artistic career sketching and practicing Chinese calligraphy with her father. She was just 5 years old at the time and living in Hong Kong, where she was born.

Now she's 28, living in the United States, and continuing her emergence on the art scene with a unique body of work that recently has been on exhibit at Hopewell Frame Shop's Gallery.

Choy earned a bachelor's de gree in printmaking at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and is studying oil painting and mixed media at The Art Students League in New York City. She was awarded the Certificate of Excellence for Academic Achievement, The President's Award and an International Scholarship from Pratt, as well as a Work Study Scholarship from The Art Student's League.

All this is mentioned at the be ginning of this review to make it clear that although she is an emerging artist, she is one with considerable talent.

On her Web site (www.saumanchoy.com), Choy writes about the magic that occurs for her just as she begins to drift off to sleep. "As the day's events come to a close, and our thinking winds down, something seemingly springs for ward from within us," she says. "These paintings are the attempt to capture those fleeting mo ments."

Her work is pure abstraction and is created using an oil-glazing and gold-leaf technique.

"Dreamland," for example, is a 12-inch-square oil on canvas to which she added bits of gold leaf to a violet and soft purple painting that seems to call to mind an antique floral bouquet. It's soft and delicate.

"Fallen Angel," however, is a 30-by-40-inch painting that can best be described as dramatic. A black background warmed by aliza rin crimson supports gold-leaf frag ments, some of which are reddened and some left bright gold. Gold-leaf confetti pieces appear to be bursting through the darkness of night.

"I'm In The Mood For Love" suggests another state of mind that occurs before sleep creeps in. This is another large painting -- 40 by 30 inches. The palette is a feminine one in pinks and purple on subtle gray. The viewer's eye travels through splatters of purple and black as it goes to a centered white space.

On her Myspace blog (www.myspace.com/saumanchoy), Choy says, "We all experience the mystical states between dreaming and reality, a spontaneous fuzzy visionary sparkling in our mind. My work is about the visualization of these 'afterimages' as a process of self- awareness."

Although her paintings are layers of glazed colors, there is noth ing "fuzzy" about them. But they do sparkle. The top layer of glazing catches the light and when you look through it you see drips and spatters, smears and splashes.

"Fallen Embers," a 24-inch-square painting is like that. A layered white background has many colors showing through to the surface while red, blue and gold leaf are seen in a crevicelike area.

"Splash," another modest-size work, makes a big energetic statement with vivid blues, white, yellow and red -- and even a suggestion of orange at the bottom. "Universal Traveler" is done in earth tones and a crackly burst of silver leaf. And "Oasis," the largest piece in the show, measuring 60 by 40 inches, has a surface covered with greens and blues and patches of gold leaf laid on thick in some areas and thin in others.

Abby Frantz, founding owner of the gallery, says Choy's father-in- law, a longtime customer, suggested she interview Choy for a possible exhibit. "They came down from Jersey City (where Choy lives with her husband) and when she brought the work in I was completely knocked out. I was stunned," she says. "I got no suggestion from the Web site of the vi brancy of the color and the depth and layers. At the opening, (reception) people were overwhelmed with her."

"Using oil and glazing and gold- leaf technique, I intend to create a luminous and reflective light effect in my works," Choy says. "The choice of colors is a vital element for capturing the characteristic aura directly related to my emotional life. ... The saturated imagery allows us to revisit the world between dreaming and reality. This journey evokes the co-existence between the afterimages and our myriad emotions."

Choy's work has been exhibited at Columbia University's Center for Women's Reproductive Care, the Jersey City Artists Studio Tour '06, The Art Student League of New York, and several galleries at the Pratt Institute.

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