Seasons_The Four Gentlewomen

Senior Exhibition, 2025
New Haven

The Four Gentlemen is one of the representative subjects of traditional East Asian ink painting. Traditionally, it depicts the virtues regarded as those of a scholar by comparing them to plants that represent the four seasons.

The artist does not limit these virtues to the qualities expected of those who govern a nation. Instead, she expands their meaning and interprets them as the attitudes with which women, who stand at the center of the family, approach and live their lives.

Seasons_Beyond the window

The place where I spent the most time during my five years in Iowa was probably the porch connected to the kitchen. In autumn, the maple leaves illuminated by the setting sun would bathe the entire house in red.

While raising three children—ages six, three, and one—in an unfamiliar land where I had no family or support network, the scenery outside the window, changing with each season, gave new meaning to days that otherwise felt the same.

The four seasons that fill one wall of the living room are a reflection on a time that was truly intense and hard-fought.