Tag: Yang Cao

In cartoons, when a character is having a bad day, or particularly depressed, he will have his own small dark cloud following him, often raining and occasionally hitting him with lightning. The more depressed he is, the more it will be just rain, while lightning often indicates an angry mood. The figures and objects in the oil paintings of Toronto based artist Yang Cao must be particularly moody. He paints fantastical still life and portraits of people with their own personal rainclouds. "I like the unpredictability of the cloud. It’s shapeless and changes all the time, it follows the wind and never stays in one form and place. Somehow I find this as a resemblance to our human nature and mind. Sometimes I wonder about the relationship between clouds and winds in comparison to people and society," he says.