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.
A NEW ABSTRACT ART STYLE RISING
SMART CITY EQUALITY by Dorothea Sandra, EDAC. Featured at the 2025 Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago.
Really? What makes this art so different?
It’s clean! It’s fresh! It has a science-based dopamine-triggering happy abstract style!
There is no universal objective criterion for judging abstract art; however, critics and enthusiasts can use several analysis approaches based on the artwork’s formal elements, the artist’s intent, and the viewer’s personal experience.
Certified evidence-based design artist, Dorothea Sandra, takes the latest scientific evidence and blends it with abstract art through a new art series. The intent of this art series, called SMART CITY ART, is to connect smart technology and sustainability science with happy dopamine-triggering evidence based design science and art.
Simply said, how is this done?
SMART CITY EQUALITY by Dorothea Sandra
At the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research and Innovation International Congress in Chicago, Dorothea Sandra's abstract paintings from the Smart City Art series were on display. Scientists and researchers gathered from around the world to speak on and discuss many of today’s topics in their fields. What were so many of them saying?
“The science is already here, but the information desperately needs to get out and be heard.”
Dorothea Sandra’s featured Smart City Art series at the 2025 SRI Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress, Chicago, USA.
Smart City Equality, the painting below, was a featured piece at this congress. Evidence-based design artist Dorothea Sandra takes the latest scientific evidence and blends it with abstract art.
ARTISTIC MERIT OF THIS ARTWORK
Skilled art techniques were essential to create this 24” x 24” work of art. The shapes, colors, and lines in the painting SMART CITY EQUALITY were arranged on the canvas to create a cohesive and visually pleasing (dopamine-triggering) experience. Composition and balance, color and value, line and shape, and texture were also successfully demonstrated.
Looking closer, especially at the symbology and iconography, the artwork shows a clear sense of purpose. It features, supports, and promotes the concepts of smart city technology and sustainability.
The emotional impact is unusual and perhaps even unique among many modern works of abstract art. Using knowledge gained from being EDAC, evidence-based design trained and certified, Dorothea Sandra drew from her background to deliberately and strategically create positive, dopamine-triggering happy emotions in viewers.
The formula of SMART TECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE + SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE + EVIDENCE-BASED DESIGN + ABSTRACT ART TECHNIQUES = SMART CITY ART SERIES was used throughout this artwork.
SCIENTIFIC MERIT OF THIS ARTWORK
The concepts of equality and sustainability are deeply intertwined. Sustainability science focuses on achieving a just and thriving world for all, now and in the future. Achieving environmental sustainability is possible through addressing social equity, as environmental burdens and benefits are disproportionately distributed.
According to China Daily. com, “Thirty years ago, 186 countries met in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the first Social Summit for Social Development. The gathering was the largest meeting of world leaders ever at the time. By the end of the summit, their agenda was clear: the challenges faced by our societies are global and so are the solutions.
In response, governments vowed to put people at the center of global development. They recognized that social justice must be the foundation for economic progress if progress is to be sustainable. It means ensuring that people, regardless of gender, nationality, background or place of birth, have the right to live in dignity, with equal opportunities to work, thrive and succeed. Societies built on fairness work better, trust more and grow stronger.
The consensus of the summit became the cornerstone for the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2015, the SDGs have been the blueprint for achieving a socially just, peaceful and sustainable world. The deadline for their realization has been set for 2030.”
Price is not the prime consideration.
I kept the prices for the paintings in this series deliberately low. My primary purpose for creating this art is to celebrate and promote knowledge and favor for smart and sustainable cities in the future, not make a big art sale.
Price: $650
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For reduced International Shipping, please contact me at dorothea@dorotheasandra.com.
Inspiration: Evidence-based design for healthy cities
Category: Abstract Expressionism
Size: 24” x 24”
Medium: Premium acrylic paint on gallery wrapped canvas
To purchase this painting click here: https://dorotheasandraart.com/shop-/p/smart-city-equality
Here’s a little video featuring today’s art that actively promotes SMART and SUSTAINABLE CITIES today and in the future.
ENJOY!
I have been given the great honor of participating in the SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL artist residency program in Shanghai, China. From mid-February to mid-May 2026, I will be staying at the hotel, where I will receive living and art studio space. My delight and focus will be to paint smart city technology and sustainability accomplishments throughout Shanghai and other super fabulous places in China. Many people have expressed a desire to follow these adventures. If you’d like to come along online, please sign up below.