作为与美丽道艺术中心有良好合作关系的艺术家陈子君，最近的创作新意不断，以一次偶遇为契机，美丽道艺术中心针对陈子君的创作和生活，与她进行了一次简单而有趣的访谈，解读创作，畅谈生活，向大家展示一个生动灵越的陈子君。

　　关于创作

　　美丽道：您典型的工作日是怎样的?能为读者描述一下吗?

　　陈子君：我典型的工作日应该是早上睡到自然醒，一般在早上十点多到画室，中午吃得很简单，不睡午觉，下午也在画室，不画画就发呆，反正在画室里呆着心里就很舒服。傍晚有时去运动一下，晚上在家会上上网，一般不超过一点钟就睡觉了。我喜欢简单而且有规律的生活，不喜欢被干扰。但每个学期我都会有一至两个月的时间要到大学城上课，就需要起早，七点准时起床，好在只是早上有专业课，一周四个早上，对创作基本没有影响。

　　美丽道：那您的创作过程呢?

　　陈子君：我的创作过程是一个游戏式的过程。先全凭感性地让色彩、线条各自在画面中立足，寻找自己的位置，自由形成自己的状态，这个过程我是先跟着它们跑的，什么该留，什么该盖掉重来，又全在你的掌控之下，当我觉得没有什么不可预料的情况会再发生的时候就停下来，在这样的基础上开始修正和发展，直到在表达上饱满了就停笔了，其实走到后来动笔越来越少动心越来越多。

　　美丽道：就您创作经历来看，艺术的必备要素是什么?

　　陈子君：对我而言，艺术的必备要素是激情、敏感和智慧。

　　美丽道：你刚开始和现在创作油画的风格和艺术理念有何不同?

　　陈子君：其实没有不同，只不过现在更清楚自己的表述方式而已。当然，在技术层面上会比原来娴熟很多，风格上也更单纯了。但好玩的是，我发现其实一个人最初想的东西本质上是始终没有变的，也是最真实的，而且是天生的。所以当你在不停提升你的艺术技法也好，思想深度也好，有时你停下来，去除一切后来叠加上去的观念和意图时，你最初的那个想法对于你来说就是最贴切的。

　　美丽道：你想通过你的艺术语言表达什么观点?

　　陈子君：我试图用自己语言和方式来表达我对人生各个阶段的心理体悟，运用带有强烈个人色彩的艺术语言来诉说人生的不可预料性以及个体的软弱的美丽的无用的抵抗。也就是从我个人的角度出发，将点滴的心理体验转换到作品中。

　　美丽道：你觉得艺术创作中最重要的一环是什么?

　　陈子君：最重要的是艺术品格。艺术观念和艺术形式是多元的，但是品格这个东西让人一目了然，它是艺术家对待艺术对待人生的一个直接折射。

　　美丽道：单就画面来看，陈老师的作品视觉上如此吸引观众的眼球，从形体和色彩上特别容易让观众着迷，能不能跟我们谈谈您的作品及作品背后的意义和艺术理念?

　　陈子君：我的作品运用了随心所欲、自然流淌的绘画技法，着重于捕捉微妙的情绪变化，利用画面中意料之中和意料之外的形象、偶然和必然的视觉效果，层层叠加，交织变化，来执迷于对人性主题的关怀。在人与人之间，人与事之间的复杂的多变的关系中，使得在平静的生活表象中暗藏着危机和矛盾。在忍耐与冲突、隐瞒与背叛、猜疑与怨恨、欲望与不满入侵与反击等等矛盾的关系面前，人生产生了不可避免的动荡不安和难以预料。我想通过对人物的刻画和气氛的渲染，试图将这样一种充满变数，快速更替的不安感给人带来的一连串矛盾的心理反应传递出来。它使人在寻找着一种宣泄的逃脱方式时产生了向往幸福美好和冲向未来的念头，这是一种夹杂着无奈的挣扎，一种充满了对抗的平静。模糊的思绪吸引着我。

　　美丽道：也就是说您的创作是一种矛盾的混合，是一种特别的心理状态的表达，那么这种心理状态肯定不是日常中经常存在的。什么事情能够激发这种心理，产生创作的灵感?

　　陈子君：能刺激我灵感的是一些不经意的人和事。生活其实就是艺术的灵感来源，艺术没有办法和生活分开。它们也许是一种并列的关系，生活起着一个参照的作用。你可以选择直接指向现实生活本身的，也可以选择从现实中抽离出来，只取你认为可取的东西，并将之升华为一种理想的状态。这是个人的态度问题。如何将生活中的事例和情感转换到作品中去是每个艺术家必须面对的艺术命题，是艺术家在艺术创作中走向个性化自由王国的必经之路。除了生活中的一些事情，各种各样的人也都可以是激发灵感的主角，我喜欢通过对人物神情、造型、肢体语言去表达一种不可捉摸不可言状的属于瞬间的内心感受和情绪变化。

　　美丽道：你是什么时候决定要成为一个专攻油画的艺术家，之前有怎样的机缘巧合?

　　陈子君：考广州美术学院附中的时候，父母其实是反对的，主要觉得对于他们来说也很陌生的广州离得太远了，认为就在汕头市考一个美术中专就很不错。可是我坚持要报考当时我所知道的最好的学校。带好行李就跟着一个到广州打工的邻居坐了夜车来到广州。并且以很好的成绩考上了。这件事情之所以对我印象很深，是因为它第一次让我明白了，事情都不是绝对的，如果你认准了就一定要坚持，坚持了就一定不会后悔。这对我的人生路程有积极作用。

　　考进了广州美术学院附中，从此才开始了正规的专业训练。四年的时间进行着各种基础训练，附中就在美院里面，我们也一样参与学院的各种学术讲座和电影欣赏之类的学习活动，实际上是我们提前进入学院的教学了。1998年我考进了广州美术学院的油画系，才有了具体的专业，在这特定的画种里头去进行语言的探索性问题。我其实走得比同龄人要快些，2002年我的本科毕业创作获得了广东省第二届当代油画展金奖。在接下来的研究生在读期间，就获得了第十届全国美展的银奖，像这样早熟的情况是很少的。紧接着又是获得了“人与自然——第二届中国山水画·油画风景展”的油画学会学术奖。但是我马上看到这种情况的弊端，我要面临的就是更难走的路了，因为这些别人要花一辈子去追求的东西，我在短短几年里就做到了，那我接下去的路一定是更难的，必须是更有创新，必须有更高的艺术追求，才不会在原地踏步。我必须付出更多，去寻找另一种可以让我沉迷于其中的方式。这样子慢慢走远了，自然而然就确定了自身的艺术发展方向。

　　美丽道：我们可以看到在你的作品中各种状态和神情的人物个色，你是如何挑选模特的?

　　陈子君：在创作中，我的模特来自于各种途径。甚至为了方便，画里的人物会直接由自己或一些好朋友来担任，这样可以很快达到想要的效果。在写生中，基本不做选择，本来就喜欢刻画一些各种各样不同身份不同性格的人物，想透过神情来透析人物的内心活动以及精神取向。

　　关于生活

　　美丽道：你平时都喜欢阅读哪些书和杂志，为什么?

　　陈子君：这个阶段我喜欢读印度的心灵导师克里希纳穆提的书，理由是好懂，他以无法之法让你的心灵独立起来清澈起来，并一步步地走向完全自由的状态中。好像对症下药，对我很管用，所以喜欢读。再就是各种类型的时尚杂志，理由很简单，就是想看各式的美女，哈哈。

　　美丽道：你最喜欢当代的哪些艺术家?试举三位。

　　陈子君：路易斯·布尔乔瓦、KiKi·斯密斯和罗斯科。

　　美丽道：什么让你保持旺盛的精力和活力?

　　陈子君：最好的方法是养精蓄锐。把绝大部分的事情看淡一些，别放在心里，无论在别人眼里是一件多么重要的事，你都要有自己的尺度。每一个人的精力是很有限的，心灵的内存空间也会不够。要把最好的精力放在自己喜爱的事情上面，其他一切都可以从简，可以无所谓，这样才能保证你在某些事情上有所谓。

　　美丽道：在未来在事业和家庭上您有什么打算?

　　陈子君：我接下来在事业上会坚持自己的路线，慢慢来，不着急，路还有很长。我想每一幅作品都尽可能做到完美。我希望家庭是稳定的，没什么比稳定感更吸引我，所以会尽量争取它。生小孩是每个家庭最大的计划吧。

　　美丽道：你人生的终极目标是什么?

　　陈子君：我人生的终极目标就是能将自己所具有的能量全部释放出来。对于我来讲，其实小时候所谓的梦想已经差不多实现了，接下来没有定下什么具体的目标，因为我相信能量是不可预计的。只是想通过学习不停提升自己，做到自己的最好。

　　美丽道：谈谈你的业余生活吧，不工作的时候，你做些什么?什么让你平和?

　　陈子君：业余生活会选择做些“女红”，手工感很强的活，比如做些裙子衣服，缝一些家居用品什么的。喜欢它的简单重复性，做起来很放松，心绪也会平和些。

　　美丽道：你有什么特别的爱好?

　　陈子君：小时候爱好非常广，喜欢做的事情特别多，很容易被吸引，而且总是轻而易举就做得很好。现在是没什么爱好可以超过画画了。现在的爱好就是尽量减少爱好。

　　Whatever will be, will be

　　A conversation between Chen Zijun and

　　Beijing Beauty Tao Art Center

　　Chen Zijun, an artist who has been in good cooperation with Beauty Tao Art Center, is constantly making new works recently. Taking an encounter as opportunity, Beauty Tao held a conversation with the artist on her artistic creation and her life. During the conversation, Chen has shown us her lively aspects as an artist and as an ordinary woman.

　　About Art

　　Beauty Tao: Can you tell us about your daily schedule?

　　Chen Zijun: Usually I wake up naturally and gets to the studio at about 10 in the morning. After having a simple lunch, I continue to work in the studio without taking a nap. Even if I don’t have anything to draw I prefer to stay there, because it makes me comfortable. Sometimes I do some sports in the evening, then surf the internet at home, and go to sleep before 1 o’clock. I enjoy a simple and regular life, without any bother. But every semester I have to give lessons in the university town for one to two months, so by that time I need to get up as early as 7 o’clock. There are 4 lessons a week, which won’t take much of my time for art making.

　　Beauty Tao: How do you work on your paintings?

　　Chen Zijun: For me, drawing is like playing games. First I’ll let the colors and lines ‘go as they please’ on the canvas, let them find their locations and come into forms liberally. In this process it seems like I am following them, but simultaneously, it still depends on me that what should remain and what should be covered and repainted. Then I’ll take a pause when the whole picture becomes stable; then I begin to modify and improve it until it has reached its richness in expression. There’s more consideration before taking up the brush when it comes closer to its finish.

　　Beauty Tao: According to your experience, what is the essentiality of art?

　　Chen Zijun: In my opinion, it is passion, sensitivity and wisdom.

　　Beauty Tao: Is there any difference between your early works and the present ones in style and artistic concept?

　　Chen Zijun: Actually there’s no difference. It is just that now I have a better understanding of my ways of expression. Of course, my skill becomes better and style purer. Interestingly, I find that although times gone by, there haven’t been essential changes to my initial thoughts and ideas, which are so true and natural. If an artist is always busy engaging himself/herself in improving techniques and depth of content, I think it would be better for him/her to stop a while and think. When all the fancy concepts and intentions are ripped out, what is most appropriate will be your initial idea.

　　Beauty Tao: What do you want to express through your artistic language?

　　Chen Zijun: I try to use my own language and ways to express my understanding to the psychology experience in different stages of life. In my paintings, I want to tell about the unpredictability of fate, the beauty of the fragility of individual, and the resistance in vain. They are also my personal feelings about life.

　　Beauty Tao: To your opinion, what is the most important part in artistic creation?

　　Chen Zijun: It is the artistic quality. Artistic concept and form can be diverse, but what distinguishes an artist from others is his/her artistic quality, which is a reflection of his/her attitude towards life.

　　Beauty Tao: The forms and colors of your paintings are very eye-catching and fascinating, can you tell us more about the meaning and concept behind the works?

　　Chen Zijun: My painting techniques are arbitrary and natural, focusing on capturing the subtle emotional changes, interweaving images created in expected and unexpected ways, and mixing various visual effects. I want to show a deep concern for the theme of humanity. In the complicated and changing relationship between people and between people and things, there are crisis and contradictions hidden beneath the quiet surface of life. Facing the contradictions like patience and conflict, concealment and betrayal, suspicion and resentment, desire and discontent, we inevitably feel uneasy and unstable. I try to convey the psychological reaction to this unease caused by the rapidly changing world. There is often a longing for happiness and future when we are seeking a way to escape our life, but it is also an inutile struggle, a kind of tranquility full of resistance. And I am so attracted by this obscurity of emotion.

　　Beauty Tao: That is to say your art is a combination of contradictions, an expression of a particular psychological state. But such a state does not often exist and needs to be stimulated, so what inspires you to paint?

　　Chen Zijun: I am inspired by things that happen accidentally. Life is actually the inspiration of art, there’s no way to tear them apart. What happens in life is a reference for art making: one can directly represent the real life; one can also extract something he/she wants and sublimate it to an ideal state, depending on one’s attitude. It is a problem that every artist has to face that transforming the events and emotions of life into artworks of his/her individuality. Apart from something in life, people of various types are also the inspiration to my paintings. I like to express an unspeakable and momentary feeling and change of emotion through the figure’s look, pose and body language.

　　Beauty Tao: When did you make the decision to be a professional artist? And what makes you to make such a decision?

　　Chen Zijun: My parents didn’t agree when I decided to apply for the middle school of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, because Guangzhou is too far away from my home. They thought it just well going to a secondary school of fine arts in Shantou. But I insisted to apply for the school which is the best I knew, so I packed my bags and came to Guangzhou with a neighbor who intended to work there. My examination result turned to be excellent and I began to study in Guangzhou. It was an experience that had positively influenced my life: insist what you think is right and never regret. After four years of academic training, I was enrolled in the department of oil painting in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, in which I started my artistic research in this specific area. In 2002 my graduation work has won the golden prize of the second session of contemporary oil painting exhibition of Guangdong Province. During my study as a postgraduate, I have won the silver prize in the tenth session of national art exhibition, and followed by the scholarship prize in ‘Human and Life: the second session of Chinese traditional landscape painting and landscape oil painting exhibition’. However, facing these prizes I soon began to realize the negative side of this situation. What lies in front of me is a more arduous path, because I have already achieved what other people spend years to achieve. Therefore I have to aim higher and work harder in my artistic novelty, in order to search new forms to which I can devote myself whole-heartedly. So step by step and naturally I have become an artist of oil painting.

　　Beauty Tao: We can see a variety of looks and states in the characters of your works, so how do you pick your models?

　　Chen Zijun: My models are of a wide range of types. Sometimes my friends or even I myself would pose for my paintings for convenience. In sketching I don’t pick models, because I like to draw individuals of different identities and personalities, and analyze their psychology by their appearances.

　　About Life

　　Beauty Tao: What books and magazines do you usually read?

　　Chen Zijun: Recently I like reading books by Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. Because they are easy to understand, help to clarify and free my spirit, and his suggestions are useful for me. Besides I like reading fashion magazine of all kinds, for I love pretty girls, haha!

　　Beauty Tao: Name three of your favorite contemporary artists.

　　Chen Zijun: Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Mark Rothko.

　　Beauty Tao: What makes you energetic and vigorous every day?

　　Chen Zijun: The best way is to relax and take a good rest. Don’t be anxious about everything. No matter how important a matter seems to be, you must have your principle. A person’s energy is limited, so as the space of one’s soul. Try to concentrate on something you like, and keep other things as simple as possible.

　　Beauty Tao: What’s your future plan for your career and family?

　　Chen Zijun: I will continue my artistic exploration step by step, for there’s still long way to go. I will try my best to finish every painting as perfect as possible. I hope to have a stable family, because nothing is more attracting to me than stability. Like most families, having children may be the biggest plan for me.

　　Beauty Tao: What’s the ultimate goal in your life?

　　Chen Zijun: To release all the energy I could possibly have. For the time being, I have realized most of my dreams from childhood, so I don’t have any specific goals at this moment. But I believe that I still have unlimited potential, and I hope to upgrade myself by studying and trying my best.

　　Beauty Tao: Tell us something about your recreation. How do you usually spend your leisure time?

　　Chen Zijun: I like to do some needlework. For example, making clothes and sewing little items. I love the simplicity and repetition in these works, it makes me relaxed and calm.

　　Beauty Tao: Do you have any special hobby?

　　Chen Zijun: When I was a child I had many, and it was always easy for me to do well in everything I like. Now there’s nothing I like more than painting. My hobby now is to decrease the number of my hobbies.