by Allen Forrest

A Selection of Allen Forrest’s Vancouver Chinatown collection. Images are on a variety of media.

Chinatown – Artist Statement

Painting is a cross between a crap shoot, finding your way out of the woods, and performing a magic act. Each time I begin to paint I feel like I am walking a tightrope—sometimes scary, sometimes exciting, sometimes very quiet, and always, always surprising; leading me where I never expected to go. Doing art makes me lose all sense of time and place and go inside one long moment of creating. Whenever I feel a painting in my gut, I know this is why I paint. The colors are the message, I feel them before my mind has a chance to get involved. Color is the most agile and dynamic medium to create joy.
And if you can find joy in your art, then you’ve found something worth holding on to.

Editor’s Note on Chinatown Artwork:

Chinatown Artwork is not Allen Forrest’s first work to appear in Eastlit. His previous published artwork is:

• Allen Forrest Artwork appeared in Eastlit January 2015.