The delicately rendered and deceptively simplistic still lifes of Don Xin Xu, a.k.a. Ling, belie this exceptionally accomplishes artist’s years of struggle, intellectual dedication, and perseverance in her native China. Ling was a remarkably self-taught student, and when the Cultural Revolution ended in China, she parlayed her rudimentary English skills into academic training as an English teacher. A testament to the powerful effect of sophisticated understatement and reserve, Ling’s lyrical still lifes are seamless fusions of western and eastern painting styles. To achieve her desired results, Ling paints in acrylic she mixes herself from raw pigment; laying down a flat background color, she then works the paint to create texture, adding slightly differing hues, drips and dribbles to give her paintings the eloquence they so effortlessly exude.