H. N. Han invented his own updated form of pointillism with a spray gun in the late 1960s, after moving to New York City from Taiwan in 1967. In this 19th-century Post-Impressionism technique, artists applied tiny dots of pure color, which blended in viewers’ eyes. To create his paintings of subtle color variations, Han sprayed acrylic paint through a series of stencils, or cutout patterns, fashioned after a photograph. He built the surface up in successive layers using different hues to either define or smooth out certain aspects of the pattern. This technique has the effect of softening an otherwise harsh industrial landscape, such as the one depicted in 8 Smoke Stacks.