HELLO CHINA
Evidence-based design, smart city technology, sustainability, and art in Shanghai, China.
Hello Everyone! So many of you have been asking me for a blog series about my adventures in China. Here it is! Today’s blog is the first one, with many more already scheduled to come. ENJOY!
Today’s blog is about who I am and why I am preparing for a 3-month painting and writing stay in Shanghai.
As promised, in these blogs, my focus will be on fabulous China, evidence-based design, smart city technology, sustainability, and art.
HELLO SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL
In 2025, I was awarded one of the world’s most prestigious artist residencies. For three months, from mid-February 2026 to mid-May, I will have the great honor of staying at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China. In my application, I wrote that I wanted to paint and write about evidence-based design, beautiful Shanghai, and its remarkable smart-city technology and sustainability achievements.
My core motivation for going was to learn and exchange. I am an internationally minded person with a keen interest in Shanghai and the exciting developments in China.
As an artist, I thought it would be super fun and happy to capture Shanghai’s beauty through floral impressionism using modern evidence-based design techniques. Evidence-based design uses credible medical and scientific research study results to inform design.
I am evidence-based design trained and certified through The Center For Health Design. In 2024, I was interviewed by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for my art and book 100 Days Of Happy Happy Art, Evidence-Based Design, and in 2024 and 2025, my art appeared in and on the cover of Healthcare Design Magazine.
Here are two photos of the evidence-based design paintings I submitted as part of my application for the Swatch Art Peace Hotel Artist Residency. This first painting is called Abundant Happiness. I was so pleased and honored when the art curators used it as the Spring 2025 digital shopping entrance photo to Condé Nast’s lovely United Kingdom-based magazine, House & Garden.
I was also delighted in 2025 when it got included in the Art Of Feeling Good Curation by Galeria Zunino in Sevilla, Spain.
Abundant Happiness, 36”x36”, is an acrylic painting on gallery-wrapped canvas, which recently sold to a buyer in Hong Kong.
Healing Abundance
Healing Abundance is another evidence-based design painting I submitted as part of my application. Not long after I finished painting it, it got sold through a gallery in Paris, France and then shipped to a television/film company in Hong Kong with channels in mainland China, Macau, and other parts of Asia.
In both paintings, I did something unusual.
I presented them like a bouquet, but then rooted them in soil.
I had my research-based/evidence-based design reasons for doing this.
Flowers rooted in soil represent life and its continuation. Cut flowers, which are typical in a bouquet, will eventually wither and die.
In evidence-based design, the viewer’s state of health and happiness should always be kept in mind. The psychological impact between a cut bouquet of flowers and flowers rooted in soil is the difference between life and death.
In this work of art, I chose life.
I am what is called a polymath painter; in addition to evidence-based design florals, I am also the creator of an abstract art series called Smart City Art. This series was created to reflect and promote smart city technology and sustainability thinking.
In 2025, I was the featured artist at the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago, USA. These abstract paintings were part of the exhibit.
Here are visuals of some of the other paintings I submitted as part of my residency application to receive this AMAZING, FABULOUS, and ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL opportunity in Shanghai.
Old City Bravely Transitioning To Smart City
In this vibrant acrylic painting, I immersed myself in the transformative energy of a city evolving into a smarter, more dynamic space. Using abstract and expressionist styles, I captured the chaos and excitement of urban renewal. My brushstrokes intertwine old architectural forms with new digital symbols, suggesting a seamless blend of tradition and innovation. This piece aims to evoke hope and the pulsing rhythm of progress.
Pretty City Art
In this vibrant swirl of emotion and color, I've channeled my deepest joy and curiosity about the urban landscape into each stroke. Utilizing acrylics, I created an abstract, expressionistic celebration of city life, capturing its rhythmic chaos and vibrant diversity. This painting bursts with energy and colors that dance together. It’s perfect to invigorate any space with a spirit of creativity and inspiration.
Smart City Green
In creating this piece, I aimed to express the vibrant dynamism of urban life, intertwined with the pulse of nature. The abstract swirls and explosive color use depict a thriving metropolis alive with energy and movement, while symbols suggest technology's interplay with a green, sustainable future. This painting captures the essence of chaos and harmony, urging viewers to reflect on our complex relationship with the environment and technology.
To learn more about me and my art, click here: DOROTHEA SANDRA ART
What is the title of my next blog? It’s appropriately called HELLO FAMOUS SHANGHAI!
When I see a location as awesome and beautiful as this one, I often think of all the people, today and throughout the ages, who helped create such abundant wonders.
Smart and Sustainable Cities and China
Continuing on my Smart City and Sustainability artistic adventures, and in preparation for my 3-month stay in Shanghai, I have been doing an abundance of research on China.
When I first told people here in the United States that I was going to paint in China, many responses were: “What do you want to do that for?” and “Are you sure you will be safe?”
Separating myself from the naysayers—who I assumed only listened to one heavily biased news/commentary channel—I pressed on.
Both intellectually and artistically, what I discovered was truly fascinating and refreshingly delightful!
When I first started painting my Smart City Art Series, created in 2024, my main focus was on capturing cities in motion through abstract art. I didn’t realize this at the time, but what I had created was an overall, general view of a fun, dynamic city in motion.
Happy City In Motion by Dorothea Sandra. In creating this painting, I embraced the chaos and beauty of motion, infusing my canvas with the energy of a bustling cityscape. Utilizing bold acrylic strokes and an abstract expressionism style, my artwork erupts with vibrant colors and dynamic shapes that capture the perpetual movement and rhythm of urban life.
In Happy Green Cities Of The Future, also part of my Smart City Art Series and a featured painting at the 2025 Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago, I used vibrant swirls of color and form to reflect a vision of connectivity within urban life. Bright blues, passionate reds, and lively yellows dance together, depicting energetic city centers that are safe and welcoming and harmonize well with nature. This painting celebrates the fusion of progress and environmental stewardship, aiming to inspire a brighter, greener future in every location it graces.
"In Pretty City Art, there is a swirl of emotion and color where I channeled my deepest joy and curiosity about the urban landscape into each stroke. Utilizing acrylics, I created an abstract, expressionistic celebration of city life, capturing its rhythmic chaos and vibrant diversity. This painting bursts with energy and colors that dance together, perfect to invigorate any space with a spirit of creativity and inspiration.
In August 2025, I was awarded a 3-month artist residency at the lovely Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China, beginning 2026 mid-February to mid-May. After immersing myself in my initial research for this 3-month stay, I soon realized that merely going out and about in Shanghai and other locations in China and merely painting them in the abstract would never capture the reality of what was actually happening in China.
What I discovered from this research is that there is a fabulous, awesome, and historically significant technological revolution happening in China—right now!
Through smart planning and implementation, China has transformed from a manufacturing hub to a global technological leader.
It has jumped to the forefront of telecommunications, e-commerce, and smart city development.
Not only has it built a generation of tech-savvy leaders ready to drive global innovation, its smart city expertise, digital infrastructure, and AI advancements offer other nations rapid urban transformations.
“China’s approach to smart cities and technology is revolutionizing not only its own future but potentially the future of urban life around the world.” (Smart Cities, China’s Model Of Success by Eduardo Moreno L)
What I have also come to believe is that—before I paint Shanghai and certain smart and sustainable locations in China—I first want to understand these locations from a point of historical and scientific depth and knowledge.
Unlike a tourist on a week’s hurried vacation taking photographs, I don’t just want to go to China and paint its buildings and surface structures.
I want to capture, through abstract works of art, beautiful Shanghai and other locations and the smart city technology and sustainability vibrancy and life—happening right now—deep inside the soul.
In addition to scientific books about smart city technology and sustainability, my latest readings include Shanghai tourist guides, “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic Of Medicine, A New Translation Of The Neijing Suwen With Commentary by Maoshing Ni,” and “Smart Cities, China’s Model Of Success” by Eduardo Moreno L.
I am not leaving until the middle of February 2026, so if you have other recommended readings for me, I would be most grateful. Just send the titles to me at dorothea@dorotheasandra.com or contact me through my website at https://www.dorotheasandraart.com. Thank you!
Here are a few of the books I have been reading.
