_edited.png)
A strike of St. Elmo's fire lights the horizon. A rich-reddish orange, the sea dragon awakens. The ocean top roils. The only witnesses are the souls of dead sailors. If you listen carefully, perhaps you can hear it's throaty voice, muscles flexing, sending a call to its brethren that slumber, too, in caverns yet undiscovered.
My art is the product of traditional-digital art synthesis. I compose acrylic paintings utilizing traditional means and transfer them photographically to an image manipulation program. I then process the paintings digitally, blending light rather than pigment and applying filters or actions to enhance the material value of the original paintings. The final work is printed on archival paper for display. Abstraction is my primary mode of expression in that it allows for me to engage with the concepts of deconstruction and play that goes beyond the delineation of forms. I draw on postmodern aesthetics, ancient Chinese art, the work of Gerhard Richter, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Hans Georg Gadamer’s theory of aesthetics to inform my work.
Elaine B. Chao is a hybrid digital-traditional artist working in Queens, NY. She is a member of Pleiades Gallery in Chelsea, NY. Her work synthesizes painting and machine learning, blending colors and using AI to create dynamic, vibrant compositions. Her "Sea Dragon" pieces are an abstract take on mythology and storytelling through art.