Luo Ying
Every morning Sun Ying will check Douban to see if there are new posts. This habit carries for over two years. Her followers start to chase her from the “Teddy’s Dairy” in 2008 all along till the recent melancholy little girl and rabbit. “The number of my followers on Douban reaches 20,000. Watching the number growing rapidly, I feel a little bit contented.” The words of doubaner become the main motivation of her art creation. Now her luck spreads out from internet, the virtual version of her dream world puts on the stage.
conversation:Luo Ying
Sun Ying
What I really like is still painting
Luo: You are major in Artistic Design of Theatre Film and Television at Beijing Film Academy. Does this experience affect your art creation?
Sun: Indeed. There are design elements in my current work. Sometime I even consider my creation as producing a film. There are stories and actors in it. All these stories, scenes and characters need to be “designed”, but in a different method of expression. They don’t appear on big screen, but on canvas.
Luo: Among all the films you have participated, which do you like the best?
Sun: I didn’t involved in too many films, but I am pretty satisfied with the graduation teamwork “Way Out”. I’m in charge of art in that film. It won a prize in Cannes Film Festival.
Luo: Why don’t you join the film crew after graduation?
Sun: If I got a job in film crew at that time, I can’t imagine what my life will become now. As a fresh graduate and a girl, I believe the life would be very hard in such environment. Also I consider myself not suitable for a wandering life. So I try to find a more stable job, makes me safer.
Luo: So you didn’t start art creation at the beginning, but worked for some time?
Sun: Yes, I first went to an advertising company. Then for the next three years, I was working on artistic network media and video editing. I felt good at that time, working in art field and could make use of my post-production skills.
Luo: But you still want to keep painting at that time?
Sun: Actually, I only got a chance to take a closer look of art works and artists, and to understand this industry better after I worked in media. Then I realized that what I really like is painting. I still hold my painting skills. I don’t want to waste them. Although my job was stable, but that is not what I really want. So I started thinking about painting again.
The simple things hold the greatest power
Luo: What theme did you choose when you first start your art creation?
Sun: At the beginning I just use painting to kill time. I spent all my time after work on painting and watching film. Everyday I will collect pictures, objects, animals and dolls I like from internet. Started from painting still life, I formed the “Teddy’s Dairy” series. I painted about 20 pieces, which are all small size ones. I just painted out my own life at that time, and didn’t expect them can be so well received. Maybe from that time, I got the direction of my painting in my subconscious, those cute and beautiful things.
Luo: Then why the rabbit become the lead character of your work afterwards?
Sun: I like rabbit when I was still a little girl. She is so mild and cute, with snow white fur and long ears. Her pride makes me feel that she is untouchable. So I personified the rabbit, fuse her into my life. This character is very flexible, I can dress her with different clothes, place her in different places. Just like the doll I played with in my childhood, I use her to tell my own story.
Luo: So where is the source of your subject?
Sun: On the selection of subject, I didn’t try to cater the viewers. My work must have the power to move myself first, so can it touch the audiences. I think this has something to do with my aesthetic tendency and character. The emotional things I choose may all random. But I hope when the audiences see my work, they can be happy.
Luo: The composition of your work is not complex at all, nearly every piece has a figure or animal as the main character, like portray. But the emotion of them is properly expressed. How did you achieve that? What is the process of the creation?
Sun: I don’t like complex composition. For me, the simple things hold the greatest power. What I want to express is just a character, an emotion, simple and straightforward. In my subconscious, I am really painting about myself, my happiness, my sorrow and how the environment affects me. If you try to feel the life with your heart, it will reflect on your work. Lots of people ask me why the characters, including the rabbit I create are so melancholy. It is just like a director keep directing same kind of film, using same actors. I guess this is because he becomes dependant to a particular feeling. Even he can’t tell what that feeling exactly is, but it forms his style in the end. This also applies in painting. I become dependant to the characters under my stroke. Talking about the process, I am also interested in how other artists create their works. I myself often do sketch on my sketch-pad when I got an idea. Then I will keep polish it and finally enlarge it on canvas. I will keep modifying my work during this process, add in new ideas. From the sketch, work-in-progress to the finished product, I use camera to keep the record. The view changes in different stages and it is a delightful experience to recall this progress itself.
Luo: Your work is full of sense of fairy tale, but reveals a quality of sorrow, is this implies your own nature?
Sun: We all hoped to live in the fairy land when we were young. But that land of dream does not exist. The story in real life doesn’t always have a happy ending. The melancholy in my paintings, maybe just reflects the real world in my eyes, and my true feeling.
Now internet is my first living essential
Luo: Is internet a big part of your life?
Sun: Yes, because I used to work through internet everyday. Painting is a lonely process. I need internet to communicate with the outside world, so it becomes my first living essential now. I use it to collect information, and get to know how others feel about my work. The number of my followers on Douban reaches 20,000. Watching the number growing rapidly, I feel a little bit contented.
Luo: What do your Douban followers usually say to you?
Sun: They will leave comments for each piece of my work, tell me their feelings, encourage me and wish me luck. They say my paintings bring joy to them, and also wish me happy all the time, keep painting. Every morning I will check Douban to see if there are new posts. This is also a way of interaction. I am happy to see so many friends are supporting me. I remember one girl said she came to see my paintings everyday, because she saw herself from them. Of cause sometimes they may ask me strange questions. Such us they want me to teach them how to paint, what brand of paint should they buy, how to made a picture frame, what is oil on canvas and all kinds of questions that hard to answer.
Luo: This is your first exhibition. Do you feel stressful?
Sun: I am dreaming of an exhibition when I first start painting. This exhibition comes earlier than my expectation. But I think the individual exhibition is a good platform to show the audiences my one year’s work in a more systematic way. Many audiences from internet don’t now who I create these works and what the original paintings look like. Someone even ask me if I create them using pen tablet. I hope this live exhibition can bring different experience to my audiences.
Gentle, no flaunting and decorated with melancholy
Luo: Each piece of your work seems telling us a story, the supplement words along with the painting even emphasized this descriptive feature. This reminds me the work of Ji Mi.
Sun: I like Ji Mi’s work, the most fascinate part of his work is the delicate emotion of people’s life in the big city, and the sorrowful, lonely feeling. You can finish his book quickly, but the mood it brought you will last for the next few days. “Beautiful Solitude” is one of his books I like the best. His simple word and monochrome picture are so powerful. I also found the reflection of myself in it. Although sometimes I feel lonely, I enjoy the happiness brought by painting.
Luo: Who is your favorite artist?
Sun: I have many favorite artists. I like Chen Ke and Liu Ye a lot. I prefer simple and descriptive paintings. Because they are quiet, I can appreciate them like reading the artists’ own stories. Chen Ke and I both use girl as a symbol. I think we share something common in expressing our emotion. Gentle, no flaunting and decorated with melancholy.
Luo: You use “Talk to Her” as the title of your exhibition, this brings to mind Pedro Almodovar’s film with the same title. Is your work somehow related to that film?
Sun: “Talk to Her” is one of my favorite film. The director used two men to explain his understanding of love, solitude, survive and communication in a wonderful way. His sensitive and delicate expression of feeling is what I pursue in the art creation. I use “Talk to Her” as the title, in the hope of emphasizing my condition and hope of talking. There is also something private and emotional in it. “She” is a character under my stroke, but also I myself. I talk to her all my understanding of life, my emotion in the practical world. When I am painting, I am communicating, with her and also with myself.
Luo: What is your next plan of work?
Sun: I will keep my style up to now, the leading characters will still mainly be the little girl, but I may also try to introduce some new characters.
