Rollerblading Meets Pollock: Watch This Artist Create Gorgeous Landscapes On Skates

Boxing gloves, emulsion-eating microbes, plastic junk, thousands of pounds of honey—time and again, we’ve seen artists abandon traditional tools and methods to create incredible, compelling work. Now California-based artist Tian Haisu has a worthy addition to the canon of quirky art: “landskating.”

Using modified rollerblades affixed with ink cartridges, Haisu creates gorgeous black-and-white landscapes on giant swaths of xuan paper—but don’t think she’s just shredding across the floor with reckless abandon. Haisu started traditional Chinese painting at three years old and still has the same amount of patience and reverence for the art form—even if she’s using her feet.

As she explains on her artist’s page:

I broke with the brush for other tools and methods, such as balloon explosion, pouring directly on the paper, tracing and dripping. Recently I became inspired by my favorite sport—ice-skating. I started my experiments with inline skates and ink. I move freely in my inline skates on xuan paper. My whole body is involved and I produce all kinds of ink landscapes, such creation is full of power, speed, and rhythm. Though it is separated from the traditional technique of the painting brush, the vitality of traditional ink landscapes remains. I am so passionate about ink landscaping because it shows very rich emotions by means of simple forms.

Check out more of Haisu’s work here.