Since MaiYap’s art career has been dedicated to the study of nature, it’s only natural that she turned her attention to earths preservation, not by stating the obvious challenges but by exploring the roots of our indifference.
As citizens of our planet, we need to ask what now, who, and why? Within her work, how can she assure authenticity, communicate meaning, while creating genuine, truthful art? With these concepts in mind, she first formulated the question and then proceeded to search her inner soul for an answer that could be artistically expressed.
These new series of paintings depict nature in motion. By means of abstractions, they try to explain and understand man’s disdain towards our environment. Color and movement mimic our planet’s cycles in all its wonderful glory. As if weaving a tapestry with paint, the images are built using a cornucopia of vibrant colors painstakingly applied, stroke-by-stroke, layer-by-layer. By manipulating pure oils using only palette knifes, she is able to capture the multitude of shapes and effects that appear solely in nature.
When the work is finished, she “destroys” the image by making deep cuts to dramatize how our earth feels. The numerous layers of paint revealed solely through these cuts highlight the need to unravel the truth by digging deeper and taking action. Her paintings have been referred to as “sculptures in oil” because of their textures which can range from completely flat to several millimeters thick. The powerful, sometimes whimsical strokes are also tools to generate questions, which, in turn, help to disseminate her environmental message. She calls this series “HOPE”, in the hope that we can change and make a difference for the many generations to come.