In May this year, photographs of Tsung­wei Moo at work featured on Yosemite National Park’s official website, publicizing the fact that she was to once again teach a workshop there as a volunteer guest artist, and inviting visitors to come and make art with her.

The magnificent rugged scenery of Yosemite National Park makes it one of Moo’s favorite locations for painting. The photo shows the very distinctive peak named Clouds Rest.

Local art and masterpieces

Moo gave her workshop at Yosemite in July. On her return to the San Francisco Bay Area in August, she was invited to exhibit works in a leading gallery near Union Square. Moo’s work was exhibited along with a number of masterpieces from artists including Impressionist pioneer Paul Cézanne, Mexican painter Diego Rivera (husband of Frida Kahlo), and US artist Sam Francis. She was of course overjoyed that her art was being shown alongside the works of masters whom she had admired since childhood, a delight that she shared on her Facebook page. 

This amazing opportunity came about as a result of Moo’s endeavors in the San Francisco area over the past 11 years.

Born in Taiwan and brought up in a traditional family, Moo enjoyed reading picture books from her earliest days, but her greatest joy throughout childhood came from drawing. As childhood moved into teenage years, Moo studied in a vocational senior high school specializing in advertising design, where she could immerse herself in art and experiment in all kinds of creative areas. Even at this young age, her works were not constrained by existing styles, and displayed a high degree of artistic innovation.

Continuing her love of art during university, Moo visited art galleries regularly, continually fueling her passion for painting. 

After graduating, Moo worked as artistic director for an advertising agency, and also developed a love for travel, especially to places of great natural beauty. On one trip, she traveled across the Western USA from the Pacific coast to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, then on to the Rocky Mountains of Utah and Colorado, that majestic mountainous boundary between the plains and the sea.

Moo has been teaching pastel drawing at Yosemite by invitation since 2012. Her workshops are always well received.

San Francisco inspirations

And then Moo discovered San Francisco’s piquant modern art community. It was a complete revelation. “In those days, while I had a great love of art, I confess I didn’t work very hard. But I decided to stay in the US,” says Moo, “mainly because I felt the need for more knowledge, for further study.”   

So without any concrete plan, Moo applied to the Art Department at City College of San Francisco, beginning at the beginning to take on a range of artistic skills including printmaking and ceramics.

Moo creates art without constraint, unlimited by particular artistic styles or genres. She revels in the touch of artistic materials. Her paintings reveal the depth of her observations of nature. Her pottery works are in both modern and avant-garde styles, reflecting an untrammeled soul. Her sculptures, currently exhibited at the City Art Cooperative Gallery in San Francisco, reveal notions of feminism. In fact, her inspiration comes from life itself.

The photo shows Tsungwei Moo drawing Yosemite’s famous Three Brothers peaks.

Inspiration from life

Moo says that art is her journal. Since settling in the US, Moo has traveled to over 20 countries. She always carries a camera to capture special moments in the places she visits. She visited the ancient pyramids in Egypt, marveling at a millennium-old fragment of a monument and envisioning the intricate skills of the ancient Egyptians under constant temperatures of above 40°C. Moo also went backpacking in South Africa, visiting national parks, sleeping in a tent with the scent of wild animals on the breeze. In the mornings, she was able to follow the tracks of the animals that had visited during the night to capture their unique beauty with her camera.

Moo’s art is inspired by such trips and experiences. She is now employing new materials, for example using laser engraving with discarded wood as her material. She uses the laser to engrave the design into the wood, then applies layers of color. 

“Because the wood that I collect comes in many different shapes, I splice the pieces into the best form to be engraved and colored. Different types and textures of wood are all treasures in my eyes. My unique coloring technique is the result of constant trial and error.” Moo finds new things every day for new creations.

Yosemite’s famous Three Brothers peaks.

Laser engraving

Moo radiates the joy that comes from creation. She often works late in the studio, cutting and splicing pieces of wood into ideal shapes, then uses a computerized laser to form the design, and finally applies the colors, the fusion of different layers of colors often creating new shades. Despite the fact that people don’t always understand the point that Moo is trying to make, for her it is total immersion. And when it’s finished, it’s always stunning in one sense or another.

Starting at Yosemite National Park in 2012, Moo has become the park’s most popular artist. Every year, the park receives many responses from visitors who have experienced the beauty of the park anew after an encounter with Moo.

Her art works are based on her direct observations of life. She traveled alone to the US, and purely by her own efforts has broken into the sophisticated art world of the San Francisco Bay Area, with some of the world’s top galleries. She participates regularly in art events run by San Francisco Women Artists (SFWA). In creating her art, she has not only achieved her dream of traveling the world, but has also brought the passion and creativity nurtured in her home of Taiwan to the other side of the Pacific Ocean. 

The picture shows Moo holding a portrait in pastels of two children that she drew while traveling in Jamaica.

With her talent and skills in art, Moo has enjoyed many opportunities to travel the world. This 2015 photo shows her as artist-in-residence at La Ceiba Gráfica art center in Mexico.

Moo is continually experimenting with new ideas. This new work uses old pieces of wood which are cut, spliced, laser engraved and then painted with acrylics. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)