The Edge of City 2008

Kexin Di made this painting, *The Edge of City*, using oils. I just love the cool muted tones and the way she's built up a craggy surface. I imagine Di started with loose washes, gradually refining the figure and landscape. The subject, a young woman, is caught in a moment of quiet contemplation, somewhere between resignation and peace. Her boots are so realistically rendered you feel like you could kick them off her feet. What a mood! And, is that landscape a real place? It has the air of somewhere the artist knows well, somewhere that is somehow stuck in time. It reminds me of some of those moody northern European landscapes by artists like Vilhelm Hammershoi. But Di is doing something different, something deeply personal with the history of painting. The conversations between artists across time are never-ending. We make what we make, trying to figure things out, one brushstroke at a time.