Born in Beijing, China, Ying Li graduated from Anhui Teachers University (1974-77) where she taught 1977-83. She immigrated to the United States in 1983. She received an M.F.A. from Parsons School of Design, NY in 1987. She is Professor of Fine Arts and Department Chair, Haverford College.
“My goal in painting is to capture nature, in both its toughness and vulnerability, and transmit all of its energy to the canvas. To this end I use intense colors, earthy textures and calligraphic lines, working in the zone where abstraction and representation shade into each other. My interests and training in Chinese painting and calligraphy lead me to a brushwork that is at once free and disciplined.
Color lies at the core of my painting process. I use it to convey mood and memory, and to express a particular sense of place and time. In my painting, color, line and plane interact, pushing each other until they reach a harmony, a unity. Like a jazz musician, I hear the lines of saxophone, bass and drums, each improvising in response to the others, swinging the piece forward. If and when these responses reach their climax, the painting is done.”
