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A Q&A with Kaite Yang, DC '09

Window

How long have you been doing art?
For as long as I can remember! My first recollection of "doing art" is when my grandfather started teaching me Chinese calligraphy and painting when I was in first grade. I have never stopped since then.

How did you get interested in art?
I just love to create, to adorn, to imagine and rework. Growing up with an artistically inclined family certainly made it very normal and fun to see people making art on a regular basis. I also regard art as not just the actual painting process, but the path of creatively formulating an idea and expression that takes physical form. So with this perspective I view art as the way to develop those ideas.

What is your favorite artistic medium?
Watercolor is my favorite. Watercolor is a medium with such personality! It is rather unforgiving, because you are very limited in what you can "erase" or paint over without seriously compromising the luminance of the medium. Transparent watercolors capture light. They also evoke motion and fluidity by the very physical properties of the paint.

Stirring My Breath

When I first started learning in a studio, I worked with charcoal, pastel, and graphite. Many of my recent works combine acrylic and watercolor. I also love working on mixed-media art projects that integrate found objects, manuscripts, and painting.

How do you develop the ideas represented in your works?
Most of my works are rather conceptual, with an element of whimsy and the surreal. Many of my paintings develop as complete images in my mind that I carry with me until I am ready to commit them to paper. "Window" [which is the image reproduced in the magazine's Art of Medicine section] belongs with a particular set of paintings where I examine the concept of transformation and changing identities by using aspects of the human body. In this series of works, called "Alchemy Inside," I depict elements of the human body—organs, systems, etc.—as carrying multiple associations, meanings, and references. For example, a lung's bronchioles magically burst into a flurry of cherry tree branches and blossoms. A ripened pear sits heavily in the uterus. Another way to put it is that I am trying to express changing and hidden characteristics. I construct this through images that are off-kilter and whimsical. The idea of a very fixed physical nature of our bodies is questioned. Ultimately, I want to depict these conceptual pieces as visually intriguing challenges to think about our physical body, our symbolic body, and the experience of living through various interpretations.

Fruit

What have you been doing since you graduated?
Right after graduating, I worked for a year for AmeriCorps, supporting the children's programs at the Upper Valley Haven [a local homeless shelter], where I had frequently volunteered as a undergraduate. Currently, I am a first-year graduate student at Princeton University. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology, and my research interests are social hypersensitivity and depression.

What effect has your artwork had on the course you're charting?
My artwork is with me every bit of the way, even if I'm not ostensibly "doing art" as a career. I think my artwork shapes the way I try to look at connections between things that may otherwise seem totally unrelated. It's an exercise in mental flexibility and looking for beauty. A great deal of my work at the Haven was art-making in the context of adult community groups and children's programs. I view art as comprising both personal expression and communication, so I see it as an inspiring and healing activity to do in this kind of setting.

FlutterBeat

What was the origin of your interest in combining art with medicine/science?
Both art and science/medicine have been so important to me. It's important to me to look for the integration of the things I love. Science and art have much to share and learn from each other in their methods and ways of understanding the world. I like to think that they are both trying to capture something true in the world and the experience of life, but through different processes and media. With regards to medicine, specifically, I was always very struck by the beauty and enigma of the human body and its organ systems. There is an intimate quality about what is inside the human body. At the same time, the body is a great visual element because it can be so raw and visceral. It was one of my goals upon coming to Dartmouth to seek the connection between art and medicine. I actually shared that very peculiar goal during a freshmen-floor icebreaker event. I didn't know at the time that two years later I would have this goal in physical form through my "Alchemy Inside" paintings!

Look Closer

How do you work on your art—in spurts, a little every day, or in some other way?
Mostly in spurts, although I think of images and ideas for my art every day. When I am ready to have an idea come to fruition, I sit down and complete a painting within a week. Sometimes, I only get it halfway done and feel that I need to grow or mature some more before I am capable of understanding what I would like to express. It's a funny way of feeling—like I need some time to "grow up" to an idea.

Is art a largely solitary pursuit for you, or do you ever paint or draw in a setting with other people around?
It's both. I enjoy painting in the company of other people—especially family and friends who have a keen aesthetic and who enjoy creating art. I love sharing the creative process with my loved ones.

Are there any particular artists or genres that have inspired you or whose work you especially enjoy?
René Magritte, Joseph Cornell, Edvard Munch, and Van Gogh are the most inspiring artists to me!

Is there anything else about your art or its meaning to you that you'd like to share with Dartmouth Medicine's readers?
My work was also featured in the Fall 2007 issue of the Dartmouth Apologia, in case anyone is interested in reading about more about the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of my work.

One additional thing related to my interest in both art and science is that in some ways I approach my art in a scientific way. It can take a long time for me to formulate a concept—a thesis—for some of my works. I sometimes view "Alchemy Inside" as a collection of supporting "studies" that illustrate a set of principles. This is part of the idea—to portray the emotional, the intangible, and the surreal with a methodical process and frame of mind.