Contemporary ink painting is characterized by distinctive aesthetic concepts and artistic expressions. It offers a rich and diverse artistic vocabulary, giving me a freedom to explore its myriad changing forms. It allows me to make use of essential elements of traditional painting, at the same time to transcend their constraints and limitations. Gradually I bring to the fore a personal inner vision evolved from many years of diving under water and from meditation.

 

In my ink works I attempt to transcend from purely visual experiences to a more spiritual realm. My own experience of the deep sea has served as a powerful path to deeper realization. In meditation, I attain a similar state of transcendence, which leads to a clear inner vision in the tradition of  Laozi and Zhuangzi. My artistic expression flows from this state; between being and nothingness there is no trace.

 

In my attempt to fully express this flow and experience of being through ink and movement, I often use semi-automatic techniques of transfer printing, free flowing, splashing, dripping and water surface marking that go beyond the functions of brush and ink. Through a process of deconstruction and reorganization I work to create specific  images which will reflect the experience of a unique transcendent state. In this way I come closer to the source flow (the dao) of my creative spirit and to transmit my artistic concepts more fully. On the one hand, deconstruction is a selective assimilation of history and culture, alongside the analysis and reflection of the objective world and my personal artistic narrative. On the other hand, I then build a greater whole by bring together the fragmentary elements in a process of reorganization. In this way, I hope to reach a clear expression of my inner world, a world beyond reality as I experience it in my meditation.

 

It is my sincere wish that my works may not only inspire my visitors to feel the personal narrative of the deep sea, but also to experience a transformational path of form and feeling that will open doors to a personal exploration of their own inner world. Through the direct experience of each work, the artist and the viewer become one, at last.                

                                                                                         Yu  lanying

作者：Yu lanying