Painting from another
dimension also means to paint from your imagination.
More than knowledge
or skill, imagination makes creating an original painting
possible. Imagination allows us to form mental images,
sensations and concepts, which are not received through our five
senses at that moment. Without these images, sensations and
concepts created in our inner picture screen located inside our
forehead, it is impossible for us to create original images on
the canvas.
Most of the time I
make representational paintings. To me, to represent is not to
imitate but to recreate the object as I image it. To represent
is to grasp the essence of the object, but not to copy its all
indiscriminate details. It does not make too much sense to me
to copy anything exactly, because that's what a camera for.
A good painting
should be able to stimulate the imagination of its viewer. A
literal imitation of any object leaves no room for imagination.
Only a painting which is created via the painter's imagination
can inspire the viewer to feel and imagine.
Of course, one
viewer's imagination is different from another and may be
entirely different from the painter's. So what? That's the
beauty of human imagination. Only pre-programmed robots may see
exactly the same images when they face the same
painting.
Imagination allows
you to see what your physical eyes cannot see. Imagination
allows you to be somewhere your physical body cannot be.
Imagination gives you wings which helps you fly as high as you
want to. Without imagination, there would be no true art.
In your imagination you can travel anywhere instantaneously. I
grew up in a seaside city where my parents' house was 25 minutes
from the beach. My summer memories are all related to sea,
sunset, boats and beach. These are my favorite subjects of
painting. Now, while seeing snow from October to April in
Denver, my imagination carries me back to the sunny
beach. When walking on the street and seeing cars and trucks
passing through, I imagine they are sailing boats moving on the
waving sea.
Imagination is not limited only to seeing images in your mind.
You can also imagine sound, taste, smell, sensation or feeling.
When you imagine a rose, you can see its delicate shape on your
mental screen, smell its fragrance, sense its beauty and feel
its movement in the wind. When you imagine a sunset beach, you
can see many colors in the sky and water, the fishing boats near
the horizon, and the children playing on the beach. You can
hear the sound of the wave, the wind and the children. You can
smell the sea.
People's imagination can be so different. Thousands of years
ago when a Chinese poet saw a round cake being cut at reunion
festival, he imagined that it was the moon going through various
phrases, from full to crest. He named the cake "moon cake". A
few decades ago an American song writer saw the moon, he
imagined that it was like a piece of pie, and created that
famous song which you can still hear on the radio today. From
cake to moon, from an earthly object to a heavenly planet, the
imagination is poetic and abstract. From moon to a piece of
pie, the imagination is concrete and sensual.
Like anything else on earth, your imagination reflects your
spirit, taste and style.
In any case, imagination is crucial in both creation and
appreciation of art.
Long live, our wild unconventional imagination!!!
04/01/2011
If you have visited my
studio or my online gallery, you may wonder:
Painting from another dimension? What does
it mean?
A few days ago, a
visitor to my website was puzzled and asked: "This art is not from out
there. It’s not different. Where is the art from out there you talk
about?"
Out where? Heaven? Space ship? Deep Space
Nine? Of course not.
I am painting here, in
my little studio on earth. I do not paint Angels or aliens or any
religious prophecy or science fantasy.
Instead,
I paint the shape, color, value and texture I see on land and in water.
I am trying to call people's attention to beauty in this world.
Einstein's universe is
4 dimensional. In some modern physicists' universe, there are 11
dimensions. Most people, however, only experience and understand three
dimensional space. Several years ago, I began to have extraordinary
experiences, which carried me to a new dimension I had never dreamed of
before and
have
changed my perception of the universe and my understanding of
consciousness. I did not visit heaven, see the white light, or talk to
aliens. I simply traveled more than 7000 miles to visit my hometown and
saw things, which later were verified, while dreaming in the bed.
After that dream, when
I closed my eyes, sometimes
I saw images as if there were a TV screen
inside my forehead. I did not see religious figures or ETs, but
breathtaking scenery and beautiful flowers and animals.
To me,
Another
Dimension is the dimension I am in when I am dreaming or in trance,
When I am not confined
by this 3D physical space,
When I am totally free
of trivial things or daily stress or ego or fear,
When my brain is
supercharged and set on the fontal lobes mode,
When my perception is
crystal clear, when I can see the image in my head.
Painting From
Another Dimension
means painting the images from my dream, in my head spontaneously,
trusting my intuition and without thinking.
Painting From
Another Dimension
means total
freedom in creation:
There is no limit as to
what to paint. I do not have to limit my subject to one kind of
landscape or portrait or still life.
There is no limit as to how to
paint.
I am not following any particular movement,
ancient or modern,
nor searching for
a formula or mechanical procedure to follow.
Instead, I am learning from all masters,
past, present and future.
I am
continuously experiment, explore and invent.
There is no limit as to
what medium to use. Ink? Silk dye? Why not? Coffee? Tea? Soy Sauce? Why
not?
There is no limit as to
what surface to paint on. Glass? Plexiglas? Acetate sheet? Why not?
Rice paper? Silk? Why not? Transparency Film? Why not?
There is no limit as to
what painting tool to use. Palette Knife? Why not? Dinner Knife? Spoon?
Fork? Why not? Wood sticks? Twigs? Why not?
Painting From
Another Dimension
means painting as
yourself,
from your heart and true to your soul.
I sell paintings, but I am NOT painting for
sale. I do not make commercial art,
even though I know that's the market wants.
I am not interested in "wall paper
paintings", even though I know they sell well.
I love to share my
paintings, which carry my vision, energy and emotion, with other, but I
am NOT paint to please others. I paint what I like. If you happen to
like it, great!
If you don't, so what? We simply have
different tastes.
There are millions
of other paintings you may enjoy.
Each of
my paintings is made with my signature knife marks or brush strokes
which no one else has exactly the same on this earth. My painting
process is so spontaneous and messy and so different each time that it
is impossible to copy my painting exactly. If you have a painting of
mine, it would be the only one exactly like that in the whole world.
I see
life as a continuum of learning, exploring, creating and sharing.
Inspired by great masters like Rembrandt, Monet, Matisse and many
others, who never stopped leaning and experimenting during their
painting career, I spend most of my time studying,
drawing, experimenting and exploring. I actually paint only when I am in
the flow, or in another dimension.
03/08/2011
I
watched The Secrete yesterday. I heard about it before, but this was the
first time I actually saw the DVD.
I was
shocked by some presenters’ concept of universe. It is ridiculous. They see the
universe as a large shopping mall, huge warehouse of merchandize, or a super
sized mail order catalog. They are the smart shoppers who know the secrete
promotional code which give them unlimited access to all the free goods which
everyone want. With this secret code, they can go shopping for anything simply
by asking the warehouse or catalog. How god fits this picture? My guess is he
would be the CEO of the warehouse.
In the
movie, some people mentioned love, relationship, but the most examples are money
or merchandize. You want a car? Simply ask and visualize. Want a house, do the
same.
I
wonder where the car or house coming from. I can imagine that if a young man in
one of stories told in the movie wanted a car, he can buy one with the money he
made or ask his father who happens to have fund to buy one for him. But before
anyone can buy a car or house, there must be engineers and workers who designed
and made the car, or architect and construction workers who designed and built
the house. If all of us on this planet, including the engineers, architects and
automobile and construction workers, begin to sit around to ask the manager of
the warehouse for everything we desire in the warehouse, who is going to make
the cars, build the house and supply the merchandize?
A
universe filled with wanters and askers who do not design or make anything other
than words cannot sustain very long, even if they inherited a huge warehouse.
02/28/2011
I just realized that perhaps I am addicted to it.
Painting has pushed everything else, including writing notes, out of the way.
My editor is ready to work on the draft of a book I am
writing, but I haven’t finished yet. Every morning I wake up with a plan: I will
write a few pages and then paint. But somehow, painting always gets moved to the
first, and I end up with painting the whole day. Anything else hardly has a
chance to get my attention.
The following is my answer to some of the questions
the collectors have asked.
Q & A
Why do you paint?
It is for fun mostly.
Plus the other 99 reasons I
listed in my book, 100 Reasons To Paint.
Why do you sell your
paintings?
If I don’t sell them, my house
would quickly run out of room for anything else,
and I wouldn’t even be able to
find my cat.
Beyond that, I love to share my
work with others.
I believe that sharing creative
energy and spirit would
bring good karma to both giver
and receiver.
Why you sell on eBay?
To share my work with more people
and
to find understanding and
appreciative homes for my paintings.
How to you price your
paintings?
I believe that really enjoyable
paintings should be available and
affordable to anyone who loves
and wants it.
Owning original art should not be
the privilege of a few.
Beautiful paintings are not
luxuries, but necessary wall pieces for every home.
They are essential to people’s
health and wellbeing.
When do you paint?
I paint when I can feel my energy
flowing spontaneously.
I don’t force myself to work
because I know
that my best efforts come about
as a natural expression.
I may paint at any time and do
not follow a particular schedule.
How do you decide what to
paint?
I paint all kinds of subjects,
but often I recollect the subject of my dreams,
which can be from the night
before, or visions or daydreams
I may have in the middle of the
day.
In this way, my paintings truly
represent my travels to other dimensions.
Who are your art teachers?
All the great painters before me,
and the painters who have yet to come.
What is your style called?
I don’t believe anyone who is
truly original can be categorized easily.
Some people call my work
neo-impressionist,
but my friends have called it
Expressive Impressionism.
My husband calls it
Messy
Impressionism.
Why do you like to use a
palette knife?
I don’t like using chemicals to
clean brushes.
A knife is much easier to clean,
and I don’t have to poison myself
doing so.
Beyond that, painting with a
knife is childlike, bold and expressive,
which suits my spirit perfectly.
02/07/2011
I recently tried
a new type of oil paint, one that was designed to dry only when heat was
applied. The advantage to this type of paint was that the paint would not dry
out on my palette, and I would not waste paint. I experimented with this brand,
Genesis oil colors and mediums, for a few weeks. I painted on canvas, Plexiglas,
glass, and transparency, using brush or palette knife, with or without medium.
These are my findings:
The best feature
was indeed that the paints stayed wet on the palette. I could paint whenever I
wanted to and leave the paints on the palette as long as I wanted.
Staying wet on
canvas, on the other hand, is not so great and advantage for me. I didn’t like
the heat-set process that much. Since I paint thick impasto, it takes a long
time to dry the painting. Even after it is dry, the paint can be taken off with
a knife easily. To dry glass painting or Plexiglas painting is more
problematic. If the heat is not completely even, the glass will break and the
Plexiglas will be warp.
Additionally,
the colors on canvas are not as brilliant as other brands of oil colors I have
used. The paintings look dull. After I put layers of Genesis vanish on a
finished painting, it regained some luster.
My experience
with Genesis makes me more conscious of health and environmental concern in
choosing oil paints. I have decided that I will only use non-toxic paints, which
may include, but definitely not limited to Genesis oil colors.
02/03/2011
I painted a few
oil sketches a few days ago. These are my favorite ones. I remember that I once
picked up an art magazine in a book store. Scanning through the pages I was
intrigued by an oil sketch and could not stop looking at it. It was a painting
done with a few brush strokes, but it said so much. To me, it was the best
painting in that magazine, better than all other paintings combined.
It is much
easier to cover the entire canvas than make a lively sketch in which no one
stroke is unnecessary.
01/29/2011
I am thinking of
originality and novelty again and I still hold the same view as I stated in my
book, 100 reasons to paint:
Originality has
been considered as the principle mark of genius. What is originality? I like
the definition by
Thomas Carlyle:
“The
merit of originality is not novelty. It is sincerity.”
Literary giant
C. S. Lewis
also stated, “In literature or art, if you simply try to tell
the truth- without caring two pence how often it has been told before- you will,
nine times out of ten become original without ever having noticed it.”
To be original
is to be you and to be true to yourself. Mr. Rogers told us, “No one else in
this world is exactly just like you. You are special.” You may have a twin
brother or sister, but there is definitely no another you on this planet at this
time. Your perception, your impression and your vision are uniquely yours. If
you express them through your art, you are creating original pieces.
When you put an
apple on your table and paint your emotional reaction to THIS apple, you are
creating something original. Yes, there have been millions of apples before
this one, but no another apple is exactly just like the apple you are looking
at. There have been thousands of painters who have painted apples before you,
but no other painter is exactly just like you and no another painting was made
at this time or under this light or from this perspective or with this vision.
When you express your own impression of this apple on your painting, your
painting is unique and original.
I like go to
City Park because it has my favorite lake and boats, interesting trees in
various shapes, colorful buildings, and lovely geese who are the permanent
residents there. No matter how many times I have been there, each time it is
new experience. The lake has different moods, the trees change from day to day
and season to season, and the geese never dance exactly the same way two days in
a row. I painted many paintings of City Park and each is the expression of my
impression of a unique scene at a unique moment under unique light.
Sometimes I use
the same elements for my flower arrangement, but each time I am facing a unique
new relationship of the elements, at a unique space-time, and from a unique
perspective. My subjective brain changes continually. So my universe changes
perpetually, even if the objects outside my brain may stay the same objectively.
Being original
does not mean you always have to paint something that no one has ever painted
before, no matter how ugly it is. More often it means you are creating a piece
of art that would NEVER exist otherwise. No one else has painted the same
subject in same way as you do. You are special, and if you are true to
yourself, every painting you paint is original and unique.
01/24//2011
A few days
ago, Molly, Sheila's dog (Sheila is Neil's mom) suddenly died, after coming back
from hospital where the doctor examined her and told us that they could not find
any abnormal heart beat or anything else that may led to heart failure. Neil and
I stayed in Sheila's house for a couple of nights to comfort her. It has been
very difficult for her to accept the passing of her beloved companion and adjust
to life without Molly.
Sheila kept
asking: "How come Molly was all right one moment and died the next?" I tried to
answer her question, but nothing seems make too much sense. Perhaps Molly
suffered a sudden heart failure, perhaps her major organs just shut down, or
perhaps she was just too tired and did not have enough energy to carry on. It
does not matter how and why. She has left this world.
Where is Molly
now? Where are our love ones who have passed away from this world? When the body
dies, does the consciousness dies with it?
I used to
believe that consciousness is the function of human brain and when brain, as a
part of the body, dies, the consciousness cannot exist anymore. About 10 years
ago, I had an extraordinary vivid dream, in which I flew to my hometown in China
without my body and saw some objects which I did not know exist. Later, my
sister confirmed what I saw. My experience associated with that dream shook my
fundamental beliefs about this world, especially the relationship and
separatability of body and mind. I wrote my experience in my book, 100
Reasons to Paint.
If our time on
this world or this dimension is finite and our consciousness is infinite, then
Mahatma Gandhi's advice “Live as if you were to die
tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
makes perfect sense. Since we cannot live forever here, we better treasure every
moment we have on the world with our family, love ones and friends. But since
our consciousness could live forever, we better learn as much as we can in this
life and carry the lesson we learned to the next world or next dimension.
01/21/2011
Last night,
after watched a Sherlock Homes' movie, I had a weird dream. In my dream I was an
assistant to a famous detective, named Jack London, who tried to solve a mystery
by finding evidence in a snow mountain. I had no clue what he was looking for.
He said: "Don't worry. You will know when you see it." I liked my job and
happily climbed mountain with Mr. London, but my favorite detective was Sherlock
Homes. I kept asking Jack London: "Are you sure your name is Jack London, not
Sherlock Homes?"
I told Neil
about my dream and asked him if he knew anyone by that name, Jack London. He
said that Jack London is a famous American writer and journalist who lived
between 1876 to 1916. I did an web search for Jack London. He published so many
novels and short stories. I could not figure out why I had that dream. Perhaps
the universe is trying to tell me that I should adventure more and write more
:-)
01/13/2011
A very
productive day! Yesterday, after so many failed paintings with the new paints,
I had a break. Felt like I could talk to the colors again. I know it was just
the beginning to understand Genesis oil colors. A great beginning, however
equals to 1/2 success!
01/10/2011
A wise man
said two thousand years ago that the secret to live a healthy and happy life
lies in harmony and balance.
It is crucial
to our health and happiness that we are always in harmony with nature, with our
environment, with our family, friends and everyone else in our life, including
those whom we accidentally encounter in grocery store or one the street. Yes,
there are people we meet now and then are not very nice, but we should always be
nice to others, no matter they are nice or not. My logic is simple: you cannot
change anyone's behavior unless that person wants to change. You can, however,
inspire him or her to change and bring the best of him or her out.
It is also
crucial to our health and happiness is that we should keep proper balance in our
diet, exercise, work and other aspects of daily life.
My best friend
was very sick for a few weeks. It makes me think lot about health and medicine.
My parents
were trained in western medicine. I grew up on campus of a medical school where
my parents taught and we lived. Living in a country which has more than 5000
years rich tradition in qi gong, acupuncture and herbs, I knew nothing about
Chinese medicine until my high school years when an acupuncturist promised to
cure my nearsightedness. My vision was improved, but not totally restored --- I
still have to wear glasses now. The experience, however, led me to a new
dimension of healing and prevention of discomfort and unbalance.
There are
fundamental different philosophies behind traditional Chinese medicine and
conventional western medicine. The conventional western medicine treats human
body as assembly of various anatomical and physiological parts, which can be
targeted and treated as parts. The traditional Chinese medicine considers human
body as an organic whole, in which each organ, tissue or cell is connected to
and interacted with all others.
Conventional
western medicine assumes disease are cause by invasion of virus or bacteria, or
by genes. The treatment is to attack and destroy the intruders or enemy, and if
that is impossible then deals with symptoms. If the weapon used for the attack
also hit the healthy organ or tissue, then there are always other medicine to
treat them. And so on so forth.
Eastern
medicine believes that the disease is caused by the blockage of the qi and the
unbalance of yin and yang in human body. The healing method is to open the
energy channel and restore the healthy balance. It's assumption is that human
body has potential to heal itself and the purpose of medical treatment is to
initiate and assist the body to recover.
The irony is
when more and more western doctors begin to embrace some eastern medicine, in
China antibiotic and other western medicine and surgery have almost replaced
traditional Chinese medicine and become the dominate method to treat illness.
A few years
ago, a famous comedian told a joke about hospital on Chinese national TV. A
patient got cold and went to hospital. he got injection of different
antibiotics and other medicine for his symptoms. The medicine affected his
kidney. He was given another pills and injections to treat kidney problems.
These pills have bad effect on his liver. Then he was given different pills to
treat the liver failure. The pills harmed his heart. His heart failed and he
eventually died. Unfortunately, it is not only a joke.
01/07/2011
Just realized
that perhaps one of the most difficult things to do is to keep doing one thing
everyday -- of course unless that things is eating, sleeping or chocolate and
ice cream. Yesterday I missed my note. When I decided to write down my notes
everyday, I thought it would be simple because I have fresh, new or creative
ideas everyday. In reality to keep doing it needs some discipline, which is not
my strong point.
In the last
few days, I have tried to paint with Genesis on canvas, glass, Plexiglas and
transparency. The colors on canvas are not that bright, on glass, Plexiglas and
transparency are much better. So far, my favorite one on Plexiglas is a snow
scene I did a few days ago (see below). It is simple, spontaneous, true to my
"messy impressionist" style.
The problem
with Plexiglas is that you cannot really heat it up to 280F without damage
it. I decided to leave the painting wet and cover it with a sheet of
transparency. It works so far, and I like the look of a wet painting. I have
to wait for a while to see the final result because the paints interact with the
Plexiglas.
01/05/2011
I continued my
experiments with Genesis oil colors. Genesis has its own color system. I have
to try more colors to choose the few I really want. I made some progress, but
still not there yet.
01/04/2011
I have been
painting with traditional oil paints until about a week ago when I accidentally
discovered the revolutionary new paints, Genesis Artist Heat-Set Oil Paints.
They are Non-toxic and odorless! They will never dry on your palette! My dream
oil paints!!
I used to
spend at least 20 minutes to clean my palette before starting to paint. Now no
cleaning time at all. The oil paints stay wet on the palette, no matter how
long you leave them there. Fist time in years, my painting table is clean
because the paints can be remove from the table with paper towel and water.
I am still
experimenting with them and trying to get used to the different feel of the
paints. I have decided, however, I will use genesis paints whenever I can.
They would not harm my health and the environment --- for this alone I would
choose Genesis oil paints over any others. It makes me feel good knowing that
I am not making messy waste while trying to create beauty.
01/03/2011
Last night I
fell asleep while watching The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Neil
insisted that we should finish it. So we did this evening. I like it because it
is full of out of this world images and surprises.
Actually
fantasy world and this physical world are not that far from each other. We all
have experienced crossing over one or more times in our dream at night or when
spacing out during the day. Some of us may have more share of dream world than
others.
I remember one
night I saw several my favorite painting masters and their muses in my dream
while I was painting the sunset on the beach. They were so close and real.
Next morning I could not get the vivid images out of my mind. So I painted it.
I always
believe that fine art should be more than the copy or recording of the objects
or events. That is what camera and camcorder for. Without the vision,
concept, emotion and imagination of the artist, there would be no art that is
extraordinary and inspiring.
01/02/2011
It was the
cleaning day for me. Since Neil was pre-occupied in fixing computer, fixing
furnace, and a few other bits, I had no choice but working by myself. Cleaning
is not one of my favorite things. I believe, however, we can have fun no matter
what we do. How? Well, you just get to be creative in finding joy and meaning in
an otherwise boring job. I tried and found two my favorite methods to clean
floor.
One is to
spray water and vinegar or bleach on the floor first and then throw paper towel
or cleaning cloth on the wet floor and ski or dance or stretch while mapping the
entire floor. Using this method, I cleaned the kitchen and both room floor in
less than 10 minutes and had great fun.
Another is to
mop the floor by hand. It is like the combination of knee walking, Pilates (that
brand of exercise) on mat and yoga stretching, in free style of course. It is
too complicated to describe. I will show you later.
We were born
creative. Creativity can be extended to every dimension and express itself in
everything we do.
01/01/2011
I began to
have rose vision again. At night, when closing my eyes, I see the most beautiful
roses ---- in translucent white, yellow, red, blue, pink and purple. So many
subtle shades. I cannot catch the image in my painting, even though I tried and
tried. Just like a couple years ago, when I saw the same transparent roses
again and again every night and tried to paint them every day. More than 100
canvases later, I roses were still far from the image I saw.
Now the images
have come back. It is the time to try to paint roses again. I know the roses I
paint may never as beautiful and mystical as the ones I see on my mental screen,
but I will never stop trying.
Mahatma Gandhi
advised us “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn
as if you were to live forever.” I have decided to paint
each day as if I paint my last painting in this life and to learn everything
about art as if I were to live and paint forever.
Suzanna, Oil, 18x24"
Old Erfie, 2010
Erfie and Chloe, 2011
Old Erfie, 2010
Before kissing the Land, Oil on Acetate
