My name is Zhonghe (Elena) Li, with the painting and pen name of wildcrane.  I love cranes for their beauty and heavenly nature.  I also feel their pain of increasingly losing habitat due to human over-development.  So don’t be surprised if you see many cranes in my paintings.   

I do research full time at the Harvard School of Public Health on health service research.    In my spare time, I am an amateur artist trying to balance the analytical aspects of life with some free flow of colors.     

I believe that nature is the source of spirituality and creativity, while art is a process to experience, to express and to capture its essence – which then is the essence of life.  I sincerely hope that through my humble work, I can help promote a kind of life philosophy especially at this age of materialism that we human beings will find simple happiness and therefore will be able to ultimately live in harmony with all other beings and nature.   By living a simple life, by being conscious of other life beings, we will be able to allow trees in the forest, birds over the wetlands and fishes in the oceans to continue to enjoy life altogether – so please try to use a mug rather than paper cups when you can; and whatever can be recycled, don’t throw them away as garbage – small things of each individual counts.  

I also found that art is a simple way to happiness, peace and contentment, and believe that anyone can pick up paint and drop some colors.