Prime Time Replay:

Amy Lee Segami
Suminagashi Artist


MsgId: *emedia(1)
Date: Mon Aug 18 20:58:32 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.32.245

Tonight's guest is Amy Lee Segami, an Asian-American fine artist who was (quite recently) in her past life an engineer. Ms. Segami's artform incorporates her background in science with her artistry to produce "paintings on water" -- or sumigashi art -- a combination of physics, geometry, and Eastern art philosophy. Ms. Segami is well-known in the Chicago art scene for her innovative creations, and recently won the Professional Achievement Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology for her crossroads paintings involving science and art. Amy Lee Segami will be on at 9 pm tonight--so stay tuned!
MsgId: *emedia(2)
Date: Mon Aug 18 20:59:24 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Ready when you are. :)
MsgId: *emedia(4)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:02:37 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.32.245

Whoo! Is this running slow tonight! Thanks for coming online, Amy. First: What is "painting on water" (suminagashi)?
MsgId: *emedia(5)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:06:39 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Sumingashi is a 12th century ancient Asian art originally started in China more than 2000 years ago. It was practiced by Japanese Shinto priests. After meditation, the priest will drop the ink with brushes, one drop at a time, touching the surface of the water. The result is a rippling effect. Traditionally, it was just black and white. When the work is complete, the priest/artist will take a piece of rice paper, lay it on top of the water, and transfer the image. Presenting this to the Emperor, Shoguns, and nobles, after they view it, a prayer, or poem, would be inscribed on the art and this entire piece of art would be burned in a religious ceremony as offering to the gods. That was the only way they could communicate to the gods -- through the smoke.
MsgId: *emedia(6)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:11:16 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.34.23

The artform also seems to be a slowly dying one -- yet you have picked this very ancient painting to incorporate with your science background. Why were you attracted to suminagashi?
MsgId: *emedia(7)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:13:13 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

The fact that it was almost dying was because traditionally only men were allowed to practice and chosen priests. It was very much kept as a secret like many other Asian art forms. As a fluid mechanical engineer, my graduate thesis was on flow visualization which had educated and trained my eyes and thinking pattern about recognizing flow structure. Through an early midlife crisis, I stumbled on this artform and got really hooked on it.
MsgId: *emedia(8)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:17:31 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.34.23

Your paintings seem very free-flowing -- a far cry from the rigidity of scientific rules. By doing suminagashi, you're also crossing into other traditions -- being Chinese, yet producing Japanese-inspired art. Was suminagashi the first artform you experimented with? Did you study a range of Asian artforms previously?
MsgId: *emedia(9)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:20:58 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Suminagashi was the first two-dimensional visual art. Other traditional art forms I had practiced -- flower arrangement, tea ceremony, tai chi -- which all have a common thread of flowing. I think I'm attracted to the fluidity of it. The first appearance of scientific studies are rigid, actually in the research field are very fluid, very freeform association with logic, and that's where arts and science can be combined.
MsgId: *emedia(11)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:26:01 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.34.23

One doesn't think of science and art as being connected, though. When constructing your pieces -- say, like for "Eddies Everywhere", how does mechanical engineer work in developing the landscape? Looking at the piece, it reminds me of Greenland's icefields, seen from the air. How does the layering in your painting work -- or is it one layer?
MsgId: *emedia(13)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:31:51 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Let me answer the last part first. Everything that you see was on the surface of the water. Once I laid the paper down, there is absolutely no touchup work, except only my signature. The layering effect is what causes the picture to look so 3-dimensional and that's where the scientific part comes in. It's the variation of the density of the pigment that causes the image to have a variation of light and shadow, which in turn, the viewers interpret the light and shadow as different in height. And the fluctuation of the density is created by adjusting the surface tension of the liquid medium, i.e., water or variation.

"Eddies" is a nickname in fluid mechanics for vortex. This piece, "Eddies Everywhere," has numerous vortexes. It's a challenge for the viewer to count how many vortexes there are. Many people have said to me it reminds them of the scenery for a science fiction to take place. People have said it reminds them of looking out of an airplane. It's the ambiguity of pranefield or vertical field.

MsgId: *emedia(15)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:38:31 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.47.28

Has your artwork inspired other engineers to experiment with suminagashi? Are you teaching as well as lecturing on the artform, and on how science and art work together? What other older artforms can you see being profoundly compatible with fields which require progressive thinking, such as engineering?
MsgId: *emedia(16)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:43:11 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

To the first part about engineers, whenever I do my lecture and public speaking, it's amazing the large number of the audience that has engineering background will respond that science can be beautiful and that as well as stretching one's imagination. It's not just black and white. Like the art work, one can associate freely and see different images at different times almost like cloud-watching due to spontaneous fluidity effects. I do public speaking with slide presentation on how one can apply science in an innovative way. Often in Chicago, as well as in my studio, and for corporations as well. I think of sculpturing, digital art, these are all very intricately related to the engineering. I think the scientific study often can be interpreted as art when one looks at it slightly differently.
MsgId: *emedia(17)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:48:56 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.47.28

Could suminagashi be translated digitally? What was one of the primary difficulties in creating your work, when you first began painting? And (I wanted to ask this earlier), what could have inspired a "mid-life crisis in someone before age 40? :-)
MsgId: *emedia(18)
Date: Mon Aug 18 21:53:20 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Yes, suminagashi can be translated digitally by scanning the image. In this day and age we can reproduce just about anything. In fact, I do have laser prints made of the image printed on large-format canvas currently being displayed in a restaurant in Chinatown Chicago -- Phoenix Restaurant. It was very challenging as traditionally only sumi ink was used to create suminagashi. I asked myself if I could bring it to a contemporary format, such as using acrylic, and incorporating various colors into the work. Turns out different color pigments have different specific gravity. Some are not compatible to flow side-by-side. Adjusting each individual density was a frustrating experience at times. Nevertheless, I was able to work it through to realize certain colors are more compatible and be able to co-exist on the surface of the water.

It was a premature mid-life crisis. As an Asian-American engineer, I experienced a lot of internal strugglings to be Asian or American, to be artistic or scientific, to be philosophical or analytical. There seemed so many different questions unanswered. All kinds of little voices in my head were asking what life was all about. I set out to find an answer for myself. Having a dream of incorporating arts and science, Asian culture and my Western education, and it took months of reading, interviewing friends, participating in workshops, even traveling back to China to seek the meaning of life. And it dawned on me that struggling does not have to be pulling one in two opposite directions, just like the factors in the force, one can align to different angles such that the forces can be interweaved into a much stronger fabric. And painting on water is my answer.

MsgId: *emedia(21)
Date: Mon Aug 18 22:01:38 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.47.28

Do you find that those who have studied art traditionally are more resistant to having an engineer lecture on and teach art? In creating a new art form out of old studies, you're Jackson Pollock, in a way....
MsgId: *emedia(22)
Date: Mon Aug 18 22:06:07 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Amen! Yes, the traditional artists tend to look at me as an "alien" for being different, unique, unusual, charting new territory. However, for those who appreciate new and different, they get excited for a whole new way of looking at and creating art. For example, I often encourage my collectors to turn the picture upside down or sideways and look at the situation differently (just like real life). By stretching one's imagination, just as scientists often ask "what else can we do, what else can it be?" I think by thinking arts and science together, we are all moving to new ground as we are approaching the millennium.
MsgId: *emedia(23)
Date: Mon Aug 18 22:09:34 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.47.28

Thank you, Amy, for being on tonight! Again, Amy Lee Segami is a Chicago-based artist whose creations, suminagashi (Paintings on Water), incorporate engineering with ancient artistic techniques. Her artwork can be seen at Segami Studios, Fine Arts Building in Chicago -- or, as part of the permanent collection Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe. Thank you so much for being on tonight, Amy!
MsgId: *emedia(24)
Date: Mon Aug 18 22:10:35 EDT 1997
From: Amy_Lee_Segami At: 207.172.104.82

Thank you for the opportunity to ripple the effect of painting on water and goodnight!
MsgId: *emedia(25)
Date: Mon Aug 18 22:11:03 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_Moderator At: 207.116.47.28

By the way, do you have an online site for people outside Chicago to view your artwork?
MsgId: *emedia(26)
Date: Mon Aug 18 22:23:08 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.14.74

Amy Lee Segami does not have a website right now, but she is hoping to get one up soon.


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