These are a group of works presenting in an abstract way, however, each of which is supported by a specific character or thing.
My early works appeared in the form of points or lines. With their permutations and combinations, different layers were formed to create pictures, in which people and things took the majority of contents. And I often re-scattered and reconstructed the pictures or stories I’m interested in, so those works at that time were created at great random due to my hazy cognition of beauty. And the choice of materials was mainly based on my own preferences as well as the habits of self-controlling developed in school time. I followed my heart to paint, thus achieving a psychological balance and reassurance through intensive work in each local part.
In the high-density stippling, the effect of pictures often reminds me of some traditional crafts like pastels, grinding paint and ceramics, so I would feel that I’ve used so much energy in the change of planes because of nearly harsh pursuit of the gorgeousness and smoothness to it. Correspondingly, I thought of Swiss watches, which are the most representatives of the western industry, and the contrast of ancient clothes: big robe and sleeves with rich multicolored decorations, intricately fitted closely. All these similar comparative ideas help me find a corresponding supporting point to maintain the painting form of points and lines for a long time.
Later, I saw some words in Of Paintings by Lin Fengmian, saying that when he was in France, his French teacher once advised him to paint from the traditional arts of the nation, which let me confirm the feasibility of my fuzzy thinking before and then I started to actively consider the reason why the picture formed by points and lines could be made. Since I painted for purpose of planes, why not try to paint planes directly? So I began to paint in the way of cover dyeing. At the beginning, I still followed my familiar style and mapping method. After painting for a long time, I slowly realized that my painting were more inclined to method in the process although they are made with figurative objects as the carrier whether point-line combination or cover dyeing, so I began the thinking about the method’s refining.
Due to the change of thinking direction, I took to Paul Klee’s paintings with clock movement structure: you can see the fullness in various changes, but never figure out the reasons in it. Later on, I understand that the richness and colorfulness originates from his obedience of national thinking habit, which is the sedimentation out of the history, something at heart, no way or no need to understand. This is just another thinking system and we just know it is good. So I do not insist on that any more, and for the thinking of Paul, I start to have certain recognition of my own inertia such as lacquer’s repeated polishing, pottery’s fambe. I feel that my painting is like lacquer grinding and fambe, and what controls the whole process is a stylized model, which can prevent me from being hesitating in painting. With the birth of pictures, the formula would make corresponding adjustments.
It is necessary for me to use the names or contents of these series of works, perhaps characters in a popular fiction All Men Are Brothers by Shi Nai 'an, or twelve constellations, or eighteen weapons, etc.. I can scatter or reconstruct pictures according to the information provided by each name or content. The specific information can separate pictures and I at relative random, keeping each one in a relatively fresh state. Therefore, I can spare more energy in dealing with the relationship of methods and pictures, leaving myself in a refined and summarized state.
