Ceramic artist molds a rustic lifestyle

As a Chinese person living in a sparsely populated rural part of the US, Liang has transformed her personal experience into creative inspiration.

At a very young age, Liang was exposed to traditional Chinese folk culture, the grandeur of ancient architecture and the charm of ceramics in the provincial capital of Xi'an in Shaanxi.

"When I was at home, I observed my family preparing the rituals to celebrate Chinese traditional festivals, and followed the Confucian routine in socializing with our relatives," she says.

The city's ancient buildings, like the Bell Tower, Drum Tower and Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, have also been etched into her memory.

"They were always there when I went shopping with my friends or took a walk with my mother after dinner," Liang says.

"They have greatly influenced my understanding of aesthetic standards and become something I have wanted to pursue in my works, which is a sense of weight, a greatness of time, yet with the qualities of peace and harmony," she adds.

Those elements have expressed themselves in the form of half-open spaces and pagodas in Liang's works.

Frequent visits to the city's Shaanxi History Museum allowed Liang to get a good measure of the beauty of ceramics.

"It felt magic to me how a ceramic item can retain its features after thousands of years," she says.

"I couldn't help but wonder who made them, and under what circumstances."