China has long been on my heart. At the time I made this collage we had been hearing more about persecution of Christians in Communist China but most people still didn't know. I wanted to draw attention to their plight but didn't want to paint battered bodies. Instead, I chose to draw in the viewer's eye with beauty. When you look closely, the message unfolds with my "fortune cookie fortune"-- It is not good to punish the righteous and the Mandarin character for suffering. Painted in ink with an oriental brush on rice paper, the character was crumpled and torn to further speak of suffering. Papers from around the world along with my hand-marbled paper, clippings and a stamp from China comprise this collage.
