For artistic creation, I don’t consider myself smart enough, but I feel that I must be candid. There is a distance betweentwounfamiliarhearts, pretentious yellingcan 't attract the audience whowill bemoved to tears, onlyrevealing the true and simple side of oneself is the bridge of communication. I am a person whose mood is written all over the face, just like I alwayscarvemy feelings into works, making myself first to be touched. I never pursued how much historical culture my works can carry, and how unconventional or futuristic they are, I just want my works to reveal true sentiments, and to be the reflection of a simple man and his understanding about life. I 'm a simple man, justasI strive to "simplicity " on the expression of my works, in plainandupright dynamicswith no exaggeration on expressions, simple as a less tech savvy kids that goes for each and every flash point. To me, simplicity is a kind of inner strength, calmwhilegaining momentum, and very pure. From graduation creation in 2007 until now, I have created dozens of works in large and small volume, but it’s still the simplestinner self I am searching for. I am enjoyingwhile suffering thisprocess, and I think it should be theart subjectthatevery artist spends the whole life to explore.
I always remember my college lectureronce told us a commercial slogan The wider your mind extends, the higher you can reach, I take this as a motto up to now. I am the kind of person whose mindcan go quite far, when I was a boy, I sent my parents all around raising money paying for my school, painting study and test, and I think I can pay the money back for sure. After college graduation I decided to drift north to Beijing to engage my art, and I also believe that must not live a mediocre life and end up farming at home. Turns out, my promise is basically realized, provided that I have kept on trying. Of course what I want is also gradually increasing, because my heart was still young and trying to go further.
Sometimes I wondered what I would do for living if I ain’t engaged in art, in fact, I really don 't know what I can do. Perhaps it’s enough for a man to try doing one thing well, why bother to chop and change. There is a time I frequently heard old men said and I quoted: you would deal with mud (farming) at home if you don’t go to school, however, you are still dealing with mud(sculpture) in Beijing after your graduation from college. Realistic sculpture requires clay sculpturing, no wonder call it playing with mud. In fact, I went farming with the parents when I was very small, my farm work was actually quite well done. Under the burning sun, I would rather transplant rice shoots neatly and harvest rice faster， just to avoid parents’criticism, so that I could rest a little bit in the fields for a rest or finish earlier. But I still don’t think that was my life, my field should be artistic creation, I would keep on cultivating, and never getting bored.
Today is Thanksgiving Day, there’s too many people I should thank for. Thank my parents for giving me life and love; thank my childhood friends who saved me, by dragging me to river bank while I was choking and sinking in the midway, it’s also you guys who urged me to swim across the big pond when I just learned how to dog-paddle. In that critical moment, I regreted not having listened to my mother to study hard at home in order to pass the admission test to university in the future. In high school, I was qualified as art specialty to enter our key school – Ningxiang Middle School, rumor has it it’s almost halfway into university once you were admitted to this school. This school is really a paradise for elite students, who came from each school elite gathered here. Me and the other three art specialties were also allocated to four different academic classes, we were the top four students in the art specialty exams in our county. I have to thank for this school which is not specialized in our specialty and my elite schoolmates who were my little science teachers back then, who let me understand that everyone has its specialties in good time, that I sucked up the bottom three marks in academic exams.
Now, all my elite schoolmates have engaged in different fields after graduate from different prestigious universities, but in jokes they appreciate my life – free and staying true to myself, The five years in college I spent it all in the professional courses, because I gained the first place in admission exam entering the sculpture department in the academy of Fine Arts, that’s why I always strive to be the best. Thank my teachers for teaching me and concerning about me, thank my college-Hubei Institute that located in the marketplace with an iron pan hanging in the gate, my memory about five years’ life here is rich and beautiful, it is everything here that unlocked the gate of my art creation. As to my north-drift life in Beijing, firstly I would like to thank those cold, poor and agonising days, in which I gradually learned to search and discover myself by precipitation and thinking; and I’d like to thank everyone I met in Beijing, particularly my teacher Mr. Wang Shaojun, it is you that help me save up the rent for my first studio, although it was only an old factory workshop with one lamp, a toilet made by a few block bricks, and no room or bed, but I had been very satisfied, because it was where my dream starts. Secondly, I would like to thank Ms. Lu Rongzhi. You are an angel, it’s only because of your selfless love for every young artists that got me the opportunity to participate in your grand group exhibition, that was literally my first exhibition in Beijing, from then I gained the confidence to continue a story in today. I also would like to thank Mr. Wu Jin , although I don 't know if I 'm a Swift Horse or not, because I am still growing, but you are definitely my talent scout. At last, I’d like to thank to myself, thank for many years’self encouraging, never abandoning or giving up, and also thank for my wide reaching mind!
Yan Shilin
At Thanksgiving night of 2014
2014.11.28
