in the Material and Expression Studio in the Department of Chinese Painting. With an extensive background in Chinese ink painting, as an undergraduate Jin focused on figure painting—the least abstract of all ink disciplines. It was during her four years of study, however, that she began to question the ink medium’s expressive origins, how one creates a sense of familiarity or mystery, how one eliminates representation while still maintaining emotion, physicality, and soul. According to the artist: "Most contemporary ink painters will likely mention that ink production is somehow connected to Zen. ‘Zen,’ this word, is not easy to understand—yet there is no need to have to explain it. I just want to say that water and ink are substances that cannot be controlled—they are unpredictable—which is how new ideas can germinate." Jin Jinghua has discovered her voice in experimental ink, maintaining the evocative properties of figure painting without figuration.
