• Artistic creation viewpoint

    

Artistic creation viewpoint

I started drawing since childhood. During the study in the Academy of Fine Arts, I majored in oil painting. However, Chinese painting always has a profound impact on me. After all, I grew up in China and was influenced by Chinese culture since I was born. But, if I decide to systematically study in both oil painting and Chinese painting at the same time, I won’t be good at both, and at least I will end up having contradictions in term of artistic concept. Because there are huge differences and contradictions between Chinese painting and Western oil painting in concepts and techniques. Because I systematically learned one of them (oil painting), I got curious and was inspired to explore the other one. Therefore, I selected Chinese painting as minor when I was studying in the Academy of Fine Arts. While I was in the development process of my creation, I keep the artistic method of Western oil painting and at the same time, I also incorporate the technique used in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. I often combine the creative concepts and techniques of oil painting and Chinese painting and complement them with each other in a harmony way, and the combination creates new effects.

For example, in my oil paintings such as Feast and Drama series, I incorporated the soul of Chinese painting—spirit resonance. Through the moving of brush strokes, spiritual charm of the character, subjective color, composition layout and other artistic methods, spirit resonance is merged into my oil painting works. In Drama series, I used artistic e­xpression methods of the ancient Chinese murals and Chinese folk art, the contrast of intense color blocks, as well as the methods of Chinese painting, splashing and dyeing. I also like to create Chinese ink paintings. When I paint ink on paper, I also tend to use artistic technique of oil painting, such as the colors layering, the contrast of cold and warm tones, the relations between lights and shadows, and some modern composition methods. This fusion of Chinese and Western concepts and techniques has gradually formed my personal painting style.

The exchange and integration of Eastern and Western art is an on-going discussion in the art community for over 100 years. In modern society, artists from the East and the West have been communicating and influencing with each other. In the current globalization age, many artists are playing a significant role in the process of globalization. As an artist I am also part of it. The dialogue about Eastern and Western art involves many aspects of topics such as ideology, cultural background and religious beliefs etc. Many people consider whether it is necessary to preserve the identity and uniqueness of Eastern and Western art in globalization, or what if we just let them go to interact, develop, dissolve and maybe integrate naturally. Where the art will go, no one knows, and we have to find the answer through continuous practice and exploration in the art path.

At every stage of my creation, I try to use my artworks to construct, interpret, and express the experience and emotions of the individual in life. My works also convey my philosophy of art: to express my reflection on life, faith, cultural environment and society in the process of artistic creation development. The change of art style depends on the theme and content. Art medium and technique vary as long as they serve the artwork well. One of phenomena of modern and contemporary art is that no matter what type of art style, different materials can be merged and used, which frees the limitations of materials on artistic creation.




Description of works

Susan,  materials :Oil on linen,  Year produced:2009,  Height/Width/Depth : 84 x 80 x 4 cm

In the middle of painting is a woman with big black hollow eyes. What her eyes convey to people is sad, lonely, needy, and helpless. Susan’s watery eyes, the nest-like curly hair with the thin chin, she looks more like a bird. This painting has something that I naturally draw in. And in her face, my own feelings are maybe hidden inside. I believe, what everyone feels may be different from my creation intention, by looking at this painting. Audience is also creator, who continues to create the painting with their understanding. The reason why I paint the eyes so big is that I hope you could see her through, deep down to the soul, but her eyes are too dark to see clearly through to the bottom, so you won’t be able to understand her heart so easily. And if you look at them too long, you will find those eyes staring at your heart directly.


Wings  materials: Oil, acrylic on linen , Year produced: 2010,  Height/ Width/ Depth : 113.5x59 x 4cm

Her two hands are hidden behind, fading into the background, looking like the wings that shrunk behind the back. Fallen angels with broken wings came to my mind when I painted. The picture is almost monochrome, except for the blush on her face and the green of the tube top. The darkness of the background (the process of human life is like a long walk in the dark, occasionally with dim light) flows to her body, and her "wings" are placed on a dark background. Her eyes tell us she is sad, helpless, confused, and slow. She is not the type of white, pure angel as we imaged. Maybe she has been dreaming about becoming an angel since childhood, but her background and experience have been driving her away into different path. How can a broken body end up in heaven? Even if she has her own wings, she can't fly like an angel. She doesn't want to tarnish the holiness of the angel in her dream. But from her blurred eyes and blush, we can tell she still owns a small piece of part, wanting to be pure, yearning for the ideal heaven. In this world, even the sand and the dust, has the right to dream.


 

Butterfly,  materials :Oil on linen , Year produced:2010,  Height/ Width/ Depth : 127 x 80 x 2 cm

On the right side of the painting, the girl has a moving face with blurry overlap, in monotone, bright red lips, which is trying to convey an ambiguous attitude and an uncertainty. The background is a deep dark color that I often use. The black color always is associated with sexual mystery. The homosexuality is still mysterious, having this sense of mysterious sexuality in the current Chinese society. Sublime and secular are often very fragile. Why don't we see them as the emotional experience of life and let the human nature decide?

 


Lunch,  materials :Oil on linen , Year produced:2007,  Height/ Width/ Depth : 110 x 150 x 3 cm

A few labor workers get together for lunch. They work at the construction site every day, doing heavy lifting work, or take labor work, or go around to pick up trash to the wasteland for money. They build the city, they clean up the street, helping the city develop with their sweat, and clean up garbage discarded randomly. They work so hard, but only afford a simple meal. However, they still have their happy and simple smile on the face.

 

Square, materials : Oil on linen, year produced: 2004, Height/ Width/ Depth : 155cm×165 x 3 cm

Awarded an excellent work in the National Art Exhibition;  and won the national award for the Stars. inducted into the anthology.

This is a group of migrant workers who gathered in the railway station square a few days before the Chinese Lunar New Year, ready to go home for the New Year. They are farmers when they return to the countryside and workers when they go to cities, so they are also called "migrant workers" in China. They leave their hometowns all the year round, work in other places to earn money, and send money back to their hometowns to build houses, but a few also stay in the cities. "Migrant workers" have made great contributions to the construction of Chinese cities.



Drama series-Dazzle,  materials : oil, Acrylic on linen , Year produced:2009, Height/ Width/ Depth : 139 x 180 x 4.5 cm

     Peking Opera is the most dominant representative of traditional Chinese art. It was included in the List of Representatives of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at UN in November 2010. I don’t think that Peking Opera is an art form which is supposed to be displayed in the museum for people to respect and memorize. In today's rapidly changing society, Peking Opera also needs innovation and development. So I started to create a series of artworks, titled "Great Peking Opera" from 2009. This series of artworks help me to find a breakthrough point for my thoughts, emotions and colors that have accumulated for many years. In the "Great Peking Opera" series, I continue to express and exploit symbols in Eastern culture. I change the way that most painters portray Peking Opera characters by using still posture for a figure. I took unusual visual angle and emphasized on the human perception caused by the characters, costumes, movements, light and shadow. I learnt from the visual effects of dynamic images in Digital Video. By using dynamic methods to capture the momentary of moving that is uneasy to capture and using the vivid dynamic color, I depicted the heroic characters of Chinese Peking Opera in a stunning and dazzling way.

     The Chinese Peking Opera series has typical Chinese cultural background. I don't think it is good enough to simply represent in figurative way. Chinese painting, Peking Opera, Tai Chi and Chinese medicine and other cultural assets have always followed the natural spirit of Taoism. The concept first before painting and emphasis on vivid spiritual resonance are important rules, which fit better with the spirit of Peking Opera. Before the creation of Peking Opera series, the spiritual character is already conceived and prepared ready in my mind. When I started painting, there was no need to repeatedly modify the sketch and I just painted freely with my hands wherever my inner spirit goes, as long as I keep the spirit inside all the time.

     When I created my oil paintings, I incorporated the soul of Chinese painting— spirit resonance. Through the moving of brush strokes, spiritual charm of the character, subjective color, composition layout and other artistic method, spirit resonance was blended into Beijing opera characters in my oil painting. The artwork that created in this way not only follows the Western paintings rules to respect the objective nature, and also contains the vivid spirit of Chinese painting. In this way, the painting can move myself. I believe that a good artwork which need to first touch the artist himself, can impress the audience.



Drama series-East wind breaks,   materials: Oil, acrylic on linen, 

Year produced:2009,  Height/Width/Depth : 182.5 x 46(×4) x 2 cm

This painting is a set of 4 paintings, representing four famous female Generals in the Chinese Peking Opera. I used the method of cutting composition, by taking only a part of every character on each painting and combining them to represent a complete Peking Opera group characters. The composition between them are related to each other. In the paintings, I used art form and artistic technique of the ancient Chinese murals and Chinese folk art, the contrast of bright color blocks, as well as the methods of Chinese painting, splashing and dyeing, in order to enhance the dynamic visual impact of the painting. I often went to watch plays of Peking Opera in China. When watching the performances, I enjoyed the fascinating story, the beauty of the characters' movements, light and shadow on stage, costumes, fabulous singing. Everything just makes a great show, and bringing it up the higher level of performance art. These "phenomena" became and formed a complete impression in my memory after the performance, which first touched me, and then stimulated my creative desire. The reason why I had such strong desire to create is because what the whole "phenomenon" presented had a huge impact on me, rather than single "phenomenon". I sketch out some of the inspirations in an instant, and these sketches are the start of my creation. The play usually takes two hours, but inspiration appears just a second. The inspiration appears because I am touched by something real and extraordinary. Maybe in that second, the eyes in my heart catch the moment, faster than my hands. In the following creation process, based on the sketch of quickly-captured moment that I finished onsite, I depict the moment and paint it on the canvas through more in-depth conception and artistic approaches.



Drama series-Wusheng, materials: Oil, acrylic on linen, Year produced: 2016,  Height/Width: 95 x 120 cm

Wusheng (武生, martial arts role) is a male character in Peking Opera who is good at martial arts. In this painting, it describes an ancient General in a traditional set of heavy armor and a helmet. When he starts dancing with a long sword, it feels like he is jumping and moving on the battlefield. The costume on the General looks heavy, but he still looks easy and flexible, moving fluidly and smoothly. I watched this incredible play once onsite. I think his Kung Fu is beautifully performed, steady and calm, showing great demeanor of a General and heroic spirit. In this painting, I caught the moment when he was about to turn and jump. The armor and the flag on his back opened wide with the wind. His long beard was also brought up by the wind. The color of the armor pattern was bright and dazzling under the light, and the whole figure appeared in pyramid composition, stable in motion. At this moment, in front of the actor was the auditorium in the dark, but in my imagination there are thousands of enemy soldiers riding on horses in the darkness surging toward the warrior. As the darkness arises, on and in the earth, the warrior keeps himself. When I was painting, I felt being in the painting, being with him, and brought the silent and secluding earth into open and bold-colored heat.


Drama series-Qingyi materials: Oil, acrylic on linen, Year produced: 2015,  Height/Width:79 x106 cm

The painting depicts a singing Qingyi. Qingyi is one of the roles of Dan in Chinese operas. Most operas in northern China are called Qingyi and most operas in southern China are called Zhengdan. It is named for the role he plays often wears blue pleats. The actors are usually dignified, serious and decent characters, most of whom are virtuous wives and mothers, or virtuous martyrs. The performance is characterized by singing, small action range and steady action. Typical representatives are Bai Suzhen in " The Legend of the White Snake".

I didn't draw the facial features of the opera characters in the painting. I present the characters' faces, shapes, costumes and backgrounds with freehand brushwork in Chinese painting. In Peking Opera, freehand brushwork is more important than freehand brushwork in Chinese painting.

When I created my oil paintings, I incorporated the soul of Chinese painting— spirit resonance. Through the moving of brush strokes, spiritual charm of the character, subjective color, composition layout and other artistic method, spirit resonance was blended into Beijing opera characters in my oil painting. The artwork that created in this way not only follows the Western paintings rules to respect the objective nature, and also contains the vivid spirit of Chinese painting.


MAKYEAME  materials: Oil on line,  Year produced: 2014,  Height/Width/Depth: 70 x 60 x 2cm

Makye Ame is Tsangyang Gyatso’s lover, who was the 6th Dalai Lama. Their love story have passed on for hundreds of years. The Tibetan women I paint is what she will look when she gets old. She is looking at the front with her squinted eyes. It feels like her current life is about to the end, the holy light of Buddha in the distance is telling her that she will meet her lover again in her next cycle of life.

 

About a few hundred years ago, in a Tibetan-style tavern located in the southeast corner of Baguo Street at the ancient city of Lhasa Barkhor, a mysterious man came. With ordinary look, he is not ordinary. At that moment, a girl, beautiful as moonlight, came in unexpectedly. Her beautiful face and affection deeply impressed this mysterious person in his heart and stayed in his dream. Since then, he visited this tavern often, just to meet the girl of the moonlight. The mysterious man was the 6th Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso. Later, the rules of the Gelugpa Buddhism prohibited the monks from marriage, and he were stopped to continue meeting this girl. The religious status did not weaken the love of Tsangyang Gyatso, and he missed his lover all the time. For the freedom of love, the ordinary people can escape, the young monks can choose to return to the vulgar, but not for him. He, as the leader of the Dalai Buddhism, has nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape. In order to stop Tsangyang Gyatso, the local religious forces sent someone to kill Makye Ame.

 

In order to memorize his girl of moonlight, Tsangyang wrote a series of love poems to express his mourning and sadness:

 

From the mountain peaks in the east,

The silvery moon has peeped out.

And the face of that Makye Ame,

Has gradually appeared in my mind.

 

Had better not meet, and thus you would not fall in love;

Had better not be in acquaintance, and thus you would not be drowned in lovesickness.

 

If I reciprocate with the feelings of the girl,

My share in religion during this life will be deprived.

If I wander among the solitary mountain ranges,

It would be contradictory to the wishes of the girl.

 

Makye Ame in Tibetan language, Makye refers to unborn or unstained, which also can be interpreted as holy, innocent, pure. Ame means Ama, which originally means Mother. In the aesthetics of the Tibetans, mother is the embodiment of the beauty of female, and the figure of the mother represents all the beauty inside and outside of a woman. Therefore, the full meaning of Makye Ame is a holy mother, a pure girl, an unmarried woman, or to the extent, a beautiful lost dream.

 


At ease,  materials :Oil on linen,  Year produced:2019, 

Height/ Width/ Depth : 81 x 65 x 2.20 cm

In 2019, the oil painting "At Ease" was selected into the Excellent Works of the exhibition catalogue of "the NOAPS 2019 Spring Online International Exhibition".

In 2021, the "At Ease" was selected into "From Seville to China: Velázquez Grand Prix of Painting and Sculpture"-Seville City Hall, Spain.  Classic Collection CLATIA Global Art Network.

During my travel in Tibet, I saw several Tibetans resting in benches outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. I can feel a sense of dedication and devoutness from their face, and self-mastery and dignity around them. It seemed that they were listening to some voice and focusing on the outer world, but the prayer beads were moved along between their fingers continuously and had never stopped even for a second, a stillness along with the movement, from the outside to the inner peace. At this moment, the silence revealed far more than all words ever spoken. I was deeply moved, and I can feel their faith is also with me in my heart. This is where my inspiration for this painting comes from.

 

Feast,  materials :Oil on linen,  Year produced:2010, 

Height/ Width/ Depth :162 x 113.5 x 4.5 cm

The painting shows several Chinese bronze containers from ancient time, such as Jue, Ge, Gui, Dun, Zun, as well as wine glasses from our modern society, Coca-Cola bottles, XO cognac bottles and others. What I try to express is that whether it is from ancient or current time, the function remains the same, serving drink or food. They are made up of different materials, in various forms, but I make their appearance looking similar. Because we can foresee that, after hundreds of years, our current utensils will also become old antiques with faded color. Our contemporary culture will become history in the future world, just like the way we look at our oldest civilization now. What I want to do here is to reveal their physical existence by painting.

 

Ham,  Materials :Oil on Wooden plywoodYear produced:2005

Height/ Width/ Depth : 60 x 70 x 0.5 cm

In the modern human society, industrialization has greatly enriched the human life. Human has constantly increased and gained satisfaction on human existence by controlling over the earth. What I paint here is ham, the most commonly seen on everyday table, processed meat product, which is produced in a factory through a series of high-tech mechanized processes. The reason why I paint it is because it is so common in my life and can represent the living material from the industrialization. In the current era we live, we have been provided so many images of this world from many aspects. Some things have taken for granted in life as time has passed on and times of visual images has been repeated. In this technology dominated society, based on personal experience, we always see the functionality first, but ignore the object’s being. The being of an object inspires me, inspires me to create an art work to reveal the physical existence of an object. The subjective consciousness is produced because of its existence of things. I am used to trying to observe objects with my own intuition, and then paint some objects that are not usually selected as the objects of painting and they will become spiritual in my painting, so that it can convey the emotion behind the canvas, and the color can convey a mysterious scene that reach to the human heart. During the creation process, the visual experience keep accumulating on the canvas, so the painting starts having a kind of touchable sense of realism, while having sort of mystery. The reality is so complicated, and many mysterious things can't be seen, or can't be understood immediately. Sometimes they can't catch it even you feel it. However, you can catch what you can see with your eyes, so let the simple feeling going on the painting. A vacuum-packed ham will deteriorate over time. Changes in lights and shadows will bring the differences. The most important is to describe the constantly-changing appearance of the object, to be consistent with the real object so that the consistency can be achieved both subjectively and objectively and leave the eternal moment on the canvas. Then what attracts me is only the process of completing painting and the information behind realistic artwork.



Phaseless Avalokitesvara,  Year produced: 2017,Materials :pigment for Chinese painting on Korean paper,Height/ Width/ Depth : 70 x 50 x 0.1cm

 In this painting, I used artistic method of Chinese Ink Painting, splashing and dyeing, and incorporated the soul of Chinese paintingspirit resonance. It is generally believed that there is a mysterious Chi (气,life force) in ancient Chinese painting. He Xie mentioned in the Six Points to Consider When Judging a Painting that explains "six rules for painting", and the first and the most important one is the principle of spiritual resonance. Through my reflection on depicting spiritual character through physical form and everything in nature back to your heart eventually, I express the inner spiritual information and my aesthetic concept on this painting.

 

This work “Phaseless Avalokitesvara” (it means a Buddha who has no steady appearnce) is based on the Buddhism doctrine and is created with the concept of "all beings are Buddhas". It is not attached to the Buddha and is not attached to the form. Because all beings are boundless, so seeing the Buddha's form is boundless. Because each realm of sentient beings is different, the form they see is different. There is a saying in the Diamond Sutra: "Everything with form is unreal; if all forms are seen as unreal, the Tathagata will be perceived". What Buddhism emphases on is to let go of your obsession, to seek the Buddha from your heart, to perceive your appearance from the inner and Buddha doesn’t have a Dharma. This is why people call it "Phaseless Avalokitesvara" and also is the inspiration for my creation of "Phaseless Avalokitesvara".



Shadakshari Lokeshvara (Chenrezig),  Materials: Pigment for Chinese painting on Korean paperYear produced: 2017Height/ Width/ Depth : 70 x 50 x 0.1cm

In this painting, I used artistic method of Chinese Ink Painting, splashing and dyeing, and incorporated the soul of Chinese paintingspirit resonance. It is generally believed that there is a mysterious Chi (气,life force) in ancient Chinese painting. He Xie mentioned in the Six Points to Consider When Judging a Painting that explains "six rules for painting", and the first and the most important one is the principle of spiritual resonance. It refers to the vivid spiritual resonance to represent the depiction of the work or the life and spirit of the whole work, and to express the inner spiritual charm of its physical state. In this artwork, through my reflection on depicting spiritual character through physical form, combining the symbolism of Shadakshari Lokeshvara (Chenrezig) which is to know Buddhism doctrine and to save sentient beings, I represent the spiritual connection between the Buddhism and the vivid spirit resonance of the ideal aesthetics in Xieyi manner (写意, freehand style).

 

The white body of four-armed Shadakshari Lokeshvara (Chenrezig) represents pure and innocence. And the Buddha's two arms are in front of the chest with palms together, which represents the process of purification for all the troubles. Shadakshari Lokeshvara (Chenrezig) is the patron saint of Tibet. The Tibetans, from old to young, every family, all of whom know to recite Six Character Great Bright Mantra: Om Ma Ni Paid Me Hum (嗡嘛呢叭咪吽, a sacred utterance with spiritual power). Most of Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists believe and respect the Dalai Lama as the incarnation of Avalokitesvara. In Tibetan Buddhism, Shadakshari Lokeshvara (Chenrezig), Manjusri and Vajrayum symbolizing great sorrow, great wisdom and great power.


For me, creating each oil painting is a personal trip. When I was creating, "I" seemed to disappear, and the individual integrated into the creation. The creative process is full of unknowns. Because I am different every day. I can't use words to describe my work. I hope the audience can experience it visually. My work will catch the audience's attention in a few seconds ".



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