On her first trip to Rome, Mona Shen was awed by the frescos and tempera paintings of the city’s churches. She had seen photos in books before, but the vibrancy of the colors and sense of history were things that couldn’t be replicated in print. These had to be experienced in person and with reverence. “Being there physically, I felt an intimacy with the materials used in creating the pieces,” she recalls. “As someone who grew up in the East but studied and has spent time in the West, I found these traditions and mediums familiar, even as they piqued my curiosity and left me with more questions.”
This trip is what ultimately inspired Shen to start painting and develop a visual language of her own.
在罗马第一次看到教堂里的湿壁画和蛋彩画的时候，沈梦丹（Mona Shen）就为之沉醉了。不同于画册中的印刷图像，那些画的色彩与历史一样厚重，是需要人仰着头，带着崇敬的态度去观赏的。“置身现场中的我深切感受到和材料的亲近感。”沈梦丹说，“作为当代东方人的我，在西方常年学习和生活的经历，让我对这种传统和媒介既有认同也有好奇和质疑。”
这是她下定决心“用油画探索自我的语言”的开始。
Shen grew up in Wuxi, China, and has called the U.S. home ever since she moved to New York for her MFA. She’s captivated by the city’s art and culture scene, which has pushed her to devote herself fully to her love of painting and develop a style defined by vivid colors and abstract forms. Through her brushstrokes, she stitches together patches of color to capture specific emotions, creating works that beckon viewers to step closer and lose themselves in the layers of paint.
Shen often relies on titles to give context to her abstract art. Names like Pink Rain, Humming Wind, and Sun at Night give viewers a framework to understand these color-based narratives. “I’m inspired by Cubism, photography, and geometry,” she explains of her approach. “For example, in Weather for All Kinds, I’m not looking to show anything specific. It’s conceptual, an exploration of how brushstrokes, color, and material can come together on a flat surface.”
Still, she adds, many of the elements that appear in her art are sourced from everyday life. “I often incorporate my observations, such as city streets, lights, and colors, into my art.”
沈梦丹生于江苏无锡，来纽约求学后，一住就是七年。这里的文化艺术环境让她沉迷，也让她日复一日投身于画画的欣喜中。她的画色彩厚重，时常用抽象的、大块的颜色去诠释某种具体的情绪，但观看的时候却能令人置身其中。
粉色的雨，嗡鸣的风，暗中寻光的人……作品名给了观看的人以一种途径，去试图在颜色构建出的画布上找寻故事。“我的作品形式上受立体主义、摄影和几何学影响很大。比如《Weather for All Kinds》, 它并不是描述一件具体的事物，而是专注用不同笔触、色块、材料，直觉性地在平面上探索一个思维空间。”沈梦丹说。在她笔下，作品的灵感都来源于对现实的感知，“比如看到的街道、光线、色彩，在创作的时候我会从中抽取一个元素作为我的观点。”
Composition and form are still the primary focus of her work, but Shen has begun moving away from purely abstract pieces in the past two years. “My paintings have a central theme that’s grounded to specific time periods and settings,” she says. “They’re not meant to be only conceptual. I want viewers to discover a specific meaning. From where a brushstroke ends to how each patch of colors is sized, different emotions are presented through these decisions, and that’s what my art is about. It’s not about the specific characters and things being shown.”
At the midpoint between concrete emotion and narrative abstraction—that’s where Shen seeks to position her work.
近两年来，即便在绘画过程中，沈梦丹依然着眼于构成和形式，但她渐渐地对纯抽象的东西感到乏味。“我的画有个主题，对观者来说是有属于特定的时间和地点，是可以让人产生‘具体’联想的，而不是被限制在任何概念里面。”她说，“我想要自己的画读起来是‘具体’的：具体到这一笔到哪里结束，那边色块大小如何明度关系，这中间往往表达了我的情感。而不是具体在画的这个人到底长什么样子，穿什么衣服。”
具象的情感与抽象的叙述，其间的折中处，就是沈梦丹作品的意图所在了。
Shen says Pete Doig and Tal R are two artists she looks up to the most. Though their art styles are different, they both create works that are as thoughtful as they are personal. In both of their works, color is used as a narrative device to explore humanity, history, and more. “Their works may be intimate and full of emotion, but it never feels over the top,” she says.
These are qualities she hopes to incorporate into her own work. As she grows as an artist, she’d also like to be more consistent, create works that feel more cohesive, and learn how to develop deeper narratives. “History, cinema, and photography are things I’d like learn from,” she says. “Learning about these different subjects can help me become a more versatile artist. I’d also like to learn how to slow down when I’m working, maybe invest a few years into a single work.”
聊起她欣赏的艺术家时，沈梦丹提名 Peter Doig 和 Tal R，两者的画虽属不同流派，但都从很敏感和私人的角度切入，以色彩呈现和讨论更大的人类和历史问题。“他们的画有强烈的个人性，有情绪，但又不是张扬的”。
如果要给未来画画定一个努力的方向的话，沈梦丹说希望未来她的作品主题更有连贯性、重复性和叙事性，“我想借鉴更多历史题材、电影、摄影作品作为参考媒介。表现手法更多样化，花更多时间去慢慢完成一张作品，甚至可以用几年的时间。”
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Website: www.monashen.org
Instagram: @monafloat
Contributor: Chen Yuan
