We have seen adult women with eyes shining, staring at a fancy doll in a toy store, or sliding their fingers over rolls of silk in a fabric store, or fixated on the reflection of a diamond in the sunlight… experiences that lead me to feel like a mere spectator, but lead them to secret passages and special worlds of color, dreams, and imagination.

At first glance we only see the surface layer of any object. But with imagination and the influence of a distant, incomplete experience, we may find a deeper understanding of what we see.

There is a hidden self in this series of the artist’s work. The figures and expressions shift and blend into the background, flowing through the color, overlapping, interlocking, and ultimately melding with the lucent silk.

Like a secret garden in a children’s tale, fairies wander through the forest, touching the dim bushes and trees with their finger tips, turning everything into a dazzling shine.

Pan Xi touches thin silk with her fingertips and turns it into a dazzling shine…