Ceramic artist takes brush to canvas of time and memory

By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Critic

•	'Probing Realities: Paintings by Sidney Yee' Through April 13 Gallery 3, Honolulu Academy of Arts 532-8701

Chinese heritage. In his recent exhibit, "Probing Realities," Yee draws connecting lines not only from his Chinese-American upbringing in Hawai'i and his experience of living here, but also from the design elements of his 20-year-long ceramics background to his recent explorations in acrylic and collage paintings.

As an art teacher on O'ahu and Maui (recently retired), Yee was known for his work in the Japanese pottery tradition. He began painting in the mid-1990s.

For the first time, in a large and dynamic scale, Yee has gathered a body of work that deals with a specific theme. "The exploration in terms of materials was also new for me," Yee says. "And in this body of work, I sought new directions in terms of using color."

It's a good thing we can't take the potter out of the painting, because the textural surfaces play a wonderful role in his work. Yee's use of tapa collaged into the under-painting carries a Hawaiian identity without literal references.

In "Red Honu," Yee uses tapa bark and grog (a pebbly clay additive) to add texture and meaning to the message. In a blue-green sea, turtles appear pushed to the surface by an invasion of mosaic-like television sets. The impressionistic approach addresses the challenges modern life presents to traditional Hawaiian culture.

"Pa'ia Pau Hana II," an architectural triptych, looks at the political implications of closing Hawai'i's sugar mills. The ocher- and sienna-painted, corrugated cardboard sky that repeats the roof patterns of the buildings suggests the roofs have been lifted off. In time, what seemed permanent to us will be forgotten.

The impermanence of life also inspires the canvases "Temporary Things," "My Brother Rodney's Family" and "Flying." Yee lost his son to leukemia. "Skateboarding was one of his passions," he says of "Flying." "It is symbolic of how I want to remember him, active in space and defying gravity."

The left side of the painting is a dark room, representing a period of mourning. The right side shows a skateboarder leaping from the room into the air, free. The muted greens, purples and browns give the painting a subdued earthiness, while the light bathing the front of the leaping figure is angelic.

"Temporary Things" deals with what Yee calls an appreciation of things that are temporary and the relativity of time. Chinese images — a dragon dance costume, fan-tail goldfish, criss-crossed stalks of red ginger and collaged metallic offering papers — appear in soft focus, glittering in the gallery light.

Closer examination of the canvas shows that Yee has added a tribute to the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink by including collaged sections about her political career.

"In the past, I've explored the idea of material and spiritual realism," says Yee, "or human realism as two different entities." In "Rocks of Love," "I wanted to express the beauty of things that are useful and travel through time, and the things that will still be here when we are gone."

Against a rosy background, the silhouette of his niece playing with a dog is juxtaposed with a jumble of realistic rocks. Born after his son died, the girl is carrying on the life force, Yee says.

"Bridge, Bridge," a 12-panel painting on metal purchased by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, further addresses Yee's connection to his past in the present. "We are part of the spiritual world on conscious and subconscious levels," he says. Daily life is represented in this painting by the hustle of the street scene above; below, the ancient Xian terra cotta tomb figures from China represent what has gone before and remained.

"It is about the journey to the afterlife while trying to transition through this life," says Yee.

His exhibit encourages reflection. What influences have past experiences (family, culture, environment) made on your daily life, and where are they taking you?