Flowers are one of the most beautiful modalities of life, transient, yet eternal. They symbolize what I think of as life. Therefore, real flowers became a vital part of my compositions. I positioned the flowers in symmetrical order at the center of the painting, transforming them from three-dimensional into two-dimensional objects. Real-life images, structures and forms were turned into symbols.

　　Whether aligned in strict symmetrical fashion or following an arbitrary yet balanced arrangement, the flowers are guiding the viewer’s eye, revealing the artistic conception of the paintings. Chinese calligraphy, rather than functioning as background, intensifies the focus of the painting. Given the pictographic nature of Chinese characters, calligraphies combine realistic and abstract elements. Likewise, flowers and their position in the painting bring the real and the abstract closer to each other. In addition, the usage of different kinds of paper led to the emergence of various straight lines with naturally broken borders, thereby uniting in an harmonious and at times antagonistic way abstract with realistic, natural lines.

　　Due to their abstract character, poems are able to express thoughts and emotions in a way that novels and other literary forms are not able to. Similarly, through their specific structural logic, abstract paintings can express the artist’s thoughts to a degree that is difficult to achieve through realistic art.

　　Realistic art is about the depiction of concrete phenomena, as well as the expression of events and emotions. Moreover, realistic images bear the responsibility of expressing the artist’s intentions. In contrast, abstract art expresses inner thoughts not through the depiction of actual images, but via the interaction of different media, the coming to grips with essential elements, and through some unspeakable mysterious logic. In some ways, this pure inner creativity as exhibited in abstract art has a stronger appeal than realistic art.

　　A calm inner world, filled with the rhythms of nature and the sense of a soundless eternity has always lived on in my mind. When I became aware of its existence, I realized that I would not be able to communicate it through realistic art. Therefore, I began to search for a novel approach. Trying to erase actual images from my mind, I knew that I had to put aside with the all to familiar ways of painting with a brush. Instead, when processing the various materials, including different qualities of paper, color and actual flowers, I began to follow my intuition, observing how the natural flow of ink and water settled into the surface of the paper.

　　Intuition, defined as a sensible perception and reaction of the human soul in touch with nature, is one of the most basic and genuine impulses of the human experience. When guided by intuition, all the essential factors are in a natural state of being, expressing the exact feeling at that particular moment in time.

　　The creative process should not be consciously controlled. Rather, creativity should be based on the embrace of the harmony in nature perceived through the eyes and one’s soul. This is the main reason why my artistic compositions differ greatly from my realistic art. While sharing a common purpose and theme – the pursuit of beauty and harmony - my realistic paintings reveal the passion for life itself, and my abstract compositions aim at communicating the essence of life. During the process of creating paper layers with flowers in between and writing the poems there was not one moment when I was not conscious and respectful of life.

　　The delicate white and cyan flowers, covered by a thin paper layer, are called “Wings of Cicadae”. Contrasting against the simplicity of ink and the gentle trace of the calligraphy, they are like the fragrance in a poem. The paintings are a window of my soul, reaching towards the eternal realm.

　　Being the most beautiful modality of life, flowers bear the important task of longing for life, and yet, they are so simple.

　　Transient, but eternal.

　　Yang Yang

　　October, 2005

　　Beijing, China