The Full Essay
Method
【Residency as practice】
Space: an isolated island, surrounded by sea on four sides
Time: tides rising and ebbing, the moon waxing and waning
Body: standing, gazing into the distance, waiting
Core: mourning and self-healing interwoven
【The sea as scroll】
Sea and sky are the frame, the tide is the sutra chant, the sea wind is walking Zen.
【Waiting as creation】
Not painting actively, receiving passively: waiting for the fog to come, for the tide to withdraw, for the moonlight to settle on the reef.
Artist's Notes
“Those days I thought I was Zhuangzi, only laughing, never crying. Who knew that tears would disobey and keep falling, not knowing whether it was the incense smoke before the Buddha stinging my eyes, or the onions of the mortal world coaxing the tears.”
Laughing and crying exist at the same time, transforming into each other. Transcendence and the mundane interwoven: this is the truth of mourning.
“Finally, graduation. Not a student's graduation, but a child's graduation: graduating from the shelter of parents, graduating from tears, graduating from smiles.”