Light Drawing

I have done abstract painting many years. It’s all involved line, shape, composition and concept. I do sketch and drawing that the light and shadow play important role. Recent years I got into digital photography. Since the contemporary art involves creative mind and using unlimited material and tools, I thought if I could use camera and the lights to create abstract drawing. I have tried and experienced for a few years. Now I could control and make several series of “light drawing” arts. The lights themselves become the lines of my drawings. It has been my experimental and adventure.

I have done abstract painting many years. It’s all involved line, shape, composition and concept. I do sketch and drawing that the light and shadow play important role. Recent years I got into digital photography. Since the contemporary art involves creative mind and using unlimited material and tools, I thought if I could use camera and the lights to create abstract drawing. I have tried and experienced for a few years. Now I could control and make several series of “light drawing” arts. The lights themselves become the lines of my drawings. It has been my experimental and adventure.

After several hours of preparation, I use just a single shot to complete each image. During an exposure time of approximately one minute, I manipulate lights in front of the camera to create “light drawings.” Then I invert the positive image to a negative one on a computer but otherwise the “light drawings” are not manipulated.

I have been drawing with traditional mediums for twenty-eight years. I used oil painting to explore the effects of light in a 2006 solo exhibition, “See the Light,” at the Little Tokyo Cultural Center, partnered with Helen Keller International. I became curious about the effects of lights in motion. Could this become the basis of a new kind of drawing? I experimented with cameras and lights until I was able to spontaneously tap into decades of drawing experience while the camera’s shutter was open, bringing life to a series of “light drawings.”