Artist’s Statement
by Florence Yip
Black Magic Woman by Florence Yip
Lust by Florence Yip
I See Her by Florence Yip
Black Magic Woman was created on a whim when inspiration struck me in the height of the pandemic in 2020, where emotions ran high and my only escape was through my art. I wanted to paint something beautiful, strong and elegant. Having always loved magic and fantasy, I wanted to add elements of the mystical into this woman. In addition, my love for nature always presented itself in my paintings, often in the form of plants and flowers. The background was created with water color, with the moon and flowers painted in acrylic, and the character and linework done in pen.
Lust: I created this piece as a donation to Female Tales Untold, a student-led event which raises money for SafeHouse Denver, an organization which serves women experiencing domestic violence in the Denver metropolitan area. This event is led by students from Rocky Vista University, the medical school I attend. Female Tales Untold is similar to Vagina Monologues — it is an empowering event which celebrates womanhood with art in all forms, including performance with monologues and poetry as well as visual art. I painted this painting in a dark red, purposely to convey the color of blood released during a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle. The clitoris is depicted as a diamond sitting on top. I wanted to convey beauty, power and elegance through this painting as a representation of the strength of the female anatomy. The idea of the flowers being drawn in such a way was inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. This painting was created with water color for the background, pen for the base, and acrylic white paint for the highlights.
I See Her was created during Inktober 2021 for the prompt “Hide.” I used my upbringing and background as inspiration for this piece. As a Chinese-American who was raised in Thailand, I find a lot of beauty in the vast variety of Asian cultures. I wanted to practice my penwork in this piece, and I was inspired by the idea that Asian women often have to “hide” themselves, and diminish themselves so that we can blend into the expectations of society. We were taught to never be too loud, never too take up too much space, and always to obey orders. This idea led to the creation of this art piece, depicting a woman hiding her face behind her fan. This piece was drawn in pen with dabs of red acrylic paint.
Florence Yip is Chinese by blood, American by law, and Thai in spirit. To explain this, both of her parents are Chinese, she was born in Denver, Colorado and she was raised in Bangkok, Thailand. She is currently studying osteopathic medicine in Colorado. Her artworks are inspired by anatomy because of her love for medicine and the tranquility of nature. Thus, many of her recent pieces involve many body systems intertwined with plants to create a balanced piece. Her works are almost always multimedia based, mainly including acrylic paint, water color and pen. This is because Florence is in love with texture and tries to create that in her pieces. Overall, art has been her escape from school and work-related stress, which is why it has been such an important part of her life. She hopes to merge the gap between science and art through her works. For more about Florence and her art, please go to her online portfolio which can be found at: https://florencejyip.wixsite.com/website/instagram