Dreaming of Mill Creek

Title: Dreaming of Mill Creek

Media: Chinese ink and watercolor on traditional hand-made hemp paper

Size: 11 x 17 in.

Date: 2019

Signed: Lu Kesi pinxit 2019 amici memoriam

Seals: Lukesi (upper right)

$500

Description

Color painting based on a black and white original by an unknown early Chinese artist as a way to learn from his technique. In the inscription is “amici memoriam” which is Latin for “in memory of an old friend” since I consider all the past artists of China as my friends.

The creek behind the house in the small town where I grew up is still there, but it’s not the creek I once knew. Since then, in order to improve it, it’s been dredged with the bed widened and flattened. The large boulders we used to scramble over and the deep places where we would swim are now all gone.

With traditional Chinese paper backing.