Hare Sea Serpent

Hare Sea Serpent is the creative identity of Hao "Eric" Shi, a Chinese-American artist whose work bridges Eastern and Western cultural worlds through expressive mark-making, dynamic color, and deeply personal visual storytelling.

The name is a portrait of a family. In the Chinese Zodiac, the Hare represents Shi’s father — the tireless creative engine, the original spark. The Serpent is his mother: watchful, wise, and fiercely protective, a force that has always circled close. The logo captures this exactly — a hare in full stride, encircled by a serpent — motion and shelter, ambition and love, forever intertwined.

Then there is the Sea.

Shi is also a Serpent by Chinese Zodiac, but one drawn irresistibly to the water. As a certified scuba instructor who has dove across five continents, the ocean is not backdrop — it is a second studio, a site of discovery, and a reminder that the world is vast and endlessly worth exploring. The “Sea” is that restlessness made permanent: the belief that the deepest work happens when you go beneath the surface.

That philosophy lives in the paintings themselves — landscapes, portraiture, and narrative compositions that ask where we come from, where we belong, and what we carry between cultures.

Shaped by international residencies across Lithuania, Latvia, Iceland, Macedonia, Finland, and the United States, Shi's practice is rooted in immersion — not just in geography, but in community. Through exhibitions, artist talks, and public workshops, the work functions as both personal inquiry and cultural bridge — using travel and human encounter as primary creative tools.