Boston, August 25, 2015, — Boston Bilingual Media & Publishing (BBMP) Inc. announced today that Across the Lonely Garden — Poem Collection of Painter Sophia Yee will be published early next month. Ms. Sophia Yee is a renowned oil painter who came to Boston in the 1980s from Hangzhou China.
Spring, oil on canvas, by Sophia Yee.
The poem collection features about 200 English and Chinese poems, many of which were inspired by the beauty of the West Lake in Hangzhou. Many of the poems were inspired by Ms. Yes’s love of her hometown Hangzhou, which is also known as paradise on earth in China. The follow poem is from the poem collection
When Spring Departing
When spring departing
left a broken wave
West Lake soon loses its youth and
its face mustard
Willows and peaches are in chaos
all butterflies’ outfit precut
and altered all the dragon flies suits
West Lake plays a wrong note
and loses its beauty
boats lazily spread on one side
like a drunk man
birds were suicidal jumping all the way down
no more happy duck games
oh! Spring
what made you leave and dies so soon
Self Introduction by Sophia Yee
I was born in China and spent most of my childhood in the city of Hangzhou — a charming and culturally rich city on China’s east coast. There I learned to draw from my grandfather who introduced me to traditional Chinese brush painting and also influenced me to write poetry at a very young age.
In the 1970s, during the Cultural Revolution in China, my dream of becoming an artist was completely shattered. In 1981 I immigrated to America and decided to pursue art once again.
Soon I encountered Surrealism and Expressionism but in the end my painting; while informed by these traditions, is individualistic and personal. My work both in painting and in poetry is about feelings made aesthetic by intention. The subject matter in my painting; whether landscape or still-life, provides both a focus for contemplation of a life that has encountered the most abrupt and unexpected of changes and a point of departure for an excursion into the psychological aspects of memory. Writing poetry is another way I express myself and to compensate for something that sometimes I can’t achieve from my visual art.
In 1989 I graduated from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. Since then I have shown my artwork internationally and locally in museums and extensively in galleries.