Prelude The Spirit of Flowers

2018 16”h, 12”w collage and watercolour
While at Vermont Studio Center, I collaborated with a Chinese poet and his translator to illustrate of the first stanza of a poem, titled “Prelude The Spirit of Flowers”, written by Qinyun Zhu and translated by Stephen Nashef:

I hide low beneath lucent-green wings
trace the shape of the Plough with my steps, make offerings to the wind, clean the fragments of pottery.
My translucent visor cannot keep off the serpent.
Its breath approaches my gasps. It cannot shed its skin.

花神引

我在翠绿的翅膀下低低地藏着
脚踏罡斗，祭风，清洗瓷器碎片
透明帽檐遮不住额上的蛇
蛇的吐纳最接近我的呼吸，不易蜕皮

• Chinese text
• Text
• Watercolour