about myself
I create in various mediums, since I like to explore the qualities and possibilities provided by them for expressing any given idea or project that comes to mind.
My signatures
A couple decades back, I switched from primarily figurative art, to creating works with greater spontaneity. At that point I began signing such abstract works as CHEN, to distinguish them from works of a more realistic nature, which I continue signing with my initials HP
Why CHEN
I have always been fascinated with traditional Chinese landscape works which date back centuries. Having lived on the West Coast for a while I encountered more people of Chinese and Japanese heritage and became even more aware of some Buddhist traditions.
CHEN came to me out of the blue, and I think it combines the exposure to people I met on the West Coast, but also the Germanic language suffix, (chen), which is a diminutive form of addressing things or people, and I think it embodies my lifetime desire, to keep my inner child alive. Certainly that is a most helpful mindset for an artist.
