paddyleung:

This year my Chinese New Year was really special, I...

paddyleung:

This year my Chinese New Year was really special, I got to celebrate with Tessar Lo and to see his art with all our friends and family. It felt so nice to see everyone and to know people came out to support our very own artist. Through out the night I kept hearing Tessar’s laughter and see him smiling from ear to ear. It made me so happy to see him like this and to share this special moment with him. 

When I reflect back, I realized in his last show at Cooper Cole Gallery  was our beginning of our friendship. It’s been over a year(+) and sometimes it feels like it’s been friends longer. In his last show : "Past, Present, Past - Present,"  he told a story about love, time, growth, and sadness. I remember his paintings were expressive and the colour of red was recurrent in his paintings. He also did some sculptures which was refreshing.

We can really see the progression in him and new his work taken by this last year. All his wanderings, his relationships and his passion for art really came through in current art show :oh, ou, ohh, o, Tessar once said to me “you’re lucky because no one really get’s to see me work” and he was right. I’ve spent most of my evenings going over to his studio just to watch him make art. He always surprised me with is new experiments with materials and getting excited when he finds a solution to his problems. Everyday was a new day, a new discovery. Nothing ever stopped him from doing what he wanted to do, he just did it. I want to thank him for inspiring me to live my life the same way.

Two of my favorite paintings is the large mix media jungle pieces. It reminded me when we traveled to L.A together and walking through the beautiful gardens that we visited. Just like in his paintings there is abundance and overgrown of unique plants, so much growth and so much life. His paintings looks more three dimensional as you can see the shadows and layers of paper pasted on top of each other. In his whole art career this is the most green he’s used in his paintings, and I felt those were the strongest paintings in the show. He displayed preliminary works of his off cuts of and some samples of different papers he painted to create texture in his paintings on the table. I really liked how he construct the table facings the painting across from each other. It demonstrates a nice transition from the beginning and final results of his works. 

I over heard him said to someone that everything he loves about Japan is because they don’t make art, they live in it. Everything he aspires in his life is to live and breath within art. When I walked into the gallery, it felt like I was inside his studio again. All the collection of his work and even the way he set up the tables low. It reminded me of his desk, close and intimate, the items he chose to put into the show were things that sat in his studio for months and even years. His playfulness and his experiments with materials. Sculptures he made, photos of his travels (printed) and his sketchbook pages. Even his pallet that he used for many years. All these things all matters to him because it tells a story about a specific time in his life.

What we saw at his art show was a glimpse of Tessar’s life.

a touching set of words and great photos from friday,

thank you, paddy-