The art is the carrier of spirit, and the artists can touch the exploration to higher-level realm of spirit over the material life of reality by virtue of the art. Compared with the common people, the art creators are able to better enjoy the internal spiritual life, meditate in the unending changes in the universe, and depict the internal imagines more true. On the other hand, the artists also possess the capacity to call for their own feelings and present their senses, thoughts and feelings in the minds in their own ways. Only when you are a person deeply interested in the art, such feeling will come to your mind by itself without the external stimulation. There are lots of such artists in the art history. Surrealist painter Salvador Dali is a successful example. He represented the unlimited imaginations in his mind as the “true” ones in a visual form, so that the viewers can go into the world of art he created. So, he is a successful example among the predecessors. Certainly, as for most art creators, they have the same goals, and the predecessors’ success is the goal of the art creators afterwards. As art followers, we have no need to deliberately imitate the predecessors’ artistic creation modes, but also have no need to worry about how to exceed them, and what we do is to realize our satisfaction with artistic creation in “our own minds”. With such ideal and pursuit, lots of art creators work hard and keep exploration. I, as one of them, also follow such road of art like a pathfinder in a dangerous mountain. It is not so important to succeed or not, and what’s more important is to find our self value during this course.

　　As a creator, I have been engaged in work creation which is a course filled with happiness and sadness for years. To retreat, maybe it is not simple for an observer. Because, when being in creating, a person is under a kind of semi-meditation status, although he has set goal, his overall awareness is running, desultory and out of logic and also there is a large probability of indeterminacy, so he should devote himself to the work conception. As for the words with clear logicality, another mode of thinking will prevail. Thus, it is unimaginable to interpret the works in words; otherwise there is no reason for existence of figurative art. Therefore, when an “image” creator makes a presentation in a logic mode of word, he can only find out his some mental processes at the time of creation once again, and go back by following the route of thinking. More efforts are needed to show the combination between the clear words and figurative art with supremacy of feeling, which in fact is to establish a chain between the “subjective feeling” and the “objective standard”.

　　I. Hesitation on the artistic road

　　In my opinion, creation is a very personalized matter. It is necessary to select a way of creation which is suitable to you, maybe such way is same as others’, but what’s important is that it should be sourced from your own mental needs. I always insist on this principle during my creation, which is sourced from my mental feelings and needs. Some factors in my painting language mode maybe are based on the reference to predecessors’, but also coincide with my own mental spirit.

　　Among numerous art creators, they have different mental journeys, so they have different creation presentations, and then the art is in various types. However, as a creator, at the beginning of selecting the creation direction, it is necessary to clearly know the purpose of creation to be reached based on satisfying the creation spirit.

　　Although oil painting is a kind of external form, this doesn’t affect the artists’ expression of self wills. Only the creators are willing, the language form won’t become a hinder, and the type of painting is just a kind of language tool, so the creators can express completely according to their own ways. So, at the same time of learning and taking the foreign techniques as example, I have being made efforts to use the oil painting language in the own way for years.

　　When in my university, I relieved the education of relatively single style of art, and the thinking and concept were single, so the presentational language was almost same among lots of people, and also a series of basic and professional trainings received were carries out surrounding the traditional representative art. Such kind of art to represent the objective image and the natural space seldom can convey the personal thoughts and concepts, and moreover, it is closely restricted by the purpose of representation in technique of expression; the objective image is limited to representation or expression; the individual creativity is unable to be developed, and moreover there is a large restriction in developing the individualities. At that time, as for more styles of art, I touched them rarely. As the time went by, I have touched more styles of art and information. These new styles of art touched my visual feeling and resulted in my fluctuation of thought. Then, I realized that the art could have many styles and characteristics. Especially in recent over 10 years, with the people’s conception and awareness being more and more open and the cultural environment becoming more and more loosened, various information of modern artistic features have come to our eyes, I became unsatisfied with the painting language mastered and has a more and more strong feeling of being restricted in creation, but, due to the well-entrenched “primitive” education, it was very hard to seek for a suitable artistic road. As for the exploration for type of artistic language, although I was impetuous sometimes, yet my thought was restricted by my self-owned concept and method, so I was at lost in method, and I couldn’t seek for any breakthrough. Even if I was unsatisfied with my own art and always wanted to get rid of something, I was puzzled on how to do and what to do. So, I felt hesitating for a long time.

　　II. Inspiration and nutrition of modern art

　　Nowadays, the modern artistic concept has been gradually accepted by people. As to the whole art circle and mass level, their understanding to modern art has gradually grown, and also gradually become tolerant and affirmative to and even accepted and appreciated the concept of modern art style.

　　I touched the theoretical foundation, thinking and conception, and training method of design discipline, which is coincident with the some language types of modern art. Previously, I was appreciative to and fond of the artistic form of the modern art, but I couldn’t understand them from their forming principles, so I just appreciated them externally but was unable to have a deep understanding. Thus, it couldn’t be say that it is a true absorption and reference to the artistic achievements of design. However, in the training method of design, a person’s thinking can be guided from the fixed mode, so that such person can enter into the art gallery of free creation step by step, therefore, understanding the forming basis and principles of the modern artistic form in a deeper level theoretically. This is a transformational leap for me to understand the modern art.

　　I was greatly inspired by the modeling awareness of the modern art and the understanding to the objective world, and they played a very good role in developing my creative thinking. During the common teaching, teaching benefited teachers as well as students. During the teaching of such course, I benefited a lot and I was almost much exited to analyze the modern masters’ works and forming principles. As to me, a person affected by traditional education for years, it was just like a door to me, in which novel feelings and surprises are filled, so I found out that there were many routes in the way of thinking. I experienced a new visual feeling, with various routes in the way of thinking, which was a completely new experience for me. If it is said that I was on a path to the mountain top in my understanding to and practice in creation, and shaded by leafy trees at two sides, then what I feel now is that I can fly higher with my wings and have a broad vision without any shelter, that is I am at a higher level, and can see everything in a more clear way.

　　Certainly, when facing anything, everyone will select the route to solution with their own experience, especially in the art, there is no absolute “reason”, and it will be ok only you think it is right in your mind. This is my opinion. In my understanding to the modern art, I just start from my own creation demands and have my own viewpoint, so that I always select the nutrition components I need in my creation. The modern art has helped me to open my thought of creation. The true language application should be continuously explored screened in practice, to form my own style.

　　1. Transcendency in understanding the concepts During the process of understanding to the modern art, I have realized that I was deeply affected by some concepts in the presentation of things with the modern art, so that I gradually changed my connatural concept and tried to know the world with a new method, and then my thought became broader. In particular, I was greatly inspired by cubism, and its perspective to know the things, application method of space, and the corresponding modeling concepts played an inspiration role in my creation. So I could seek for a new possibility in the continuous introspection.

　　In the modern artistic view, the understanding to space is pioneering. It is not restricted by observing objects at a fixed point and from a fixed perspective, not restricted by the single three-dimensional space, goes beyond the fixed model, and developed into moveable, multidimensional, and steric space concept. Such kind of application of space is flexible and can be determined according to the expression demands of creative painting. So, it is a revolutionary breakthrough compared with the traditional space.

　　Certainly, such freedom in painting space is not the patent of the modern art. At this point, it has different approaches but equally satisfactory results with the space concept shown in some works of Chinese painting. It is very free in space use in Chinese painting, although it is different from the western painting in technique, yet its freedom in art is not inferior to the modern art in a manner of speaking. Therefore, such freedom in space is easily accepted by both the western people and the eastern people. Because the pursuit for freedom in painting representation is same among the people no matter they are Chinese or western. After knowing the significance of such new space concept on painting creation, I have got a big breakthrough in the use of space, so that I don’t rigidly adhere to and am not restricted by the threedimensional space in realistic meaning in painting creation, but I can make a decision based on the painting structure or the creation intention. This is also a fundamental breakthrough in changing my painting concept and cognition.

　　2. Freedom in modeling method The use of space decides the modeling method and changes the perspective to know the objective world. With the breakthrough in understanding to painting space, the modeling concept will correspondingly have changes. Regarding the modeling method, I am inspired by cubism. When knowing the things with cubism, an open method is adopted, so that it becomes free to take and use objective image for reference in the creation, to avoid being controlled by objective image. What’s more, it is able to occupy an active position in creation modeling, to avoid being restricted by objective image, so the objective image will exist in order to satisfy the space demand of painting, and further to serve the representation of creation theme.

　　When treating the objective image and the painting image, in the modern art, the image reproducibility is broken through, and the useful model will be selected based on the creation demands, thereby avoiding the passive status in the traditional modeling. As for the image representation, it could be a local, tridimensional, plane, moveable, or combined one. You can select the focus in modeling based on your own individual needs. Some are fond of the image details, some are interested in the image structure, and some are likely to deeply express the internal feelings, etc., all of these could be the reasons to select the modeling routes. As for me, I pay attention to understanding the objective image with analysis method, and adopting summarization method, and selecting parts by separating the image, etc. All of these selections are made as per the self’s demands to show the theme or feeling. Such kind of attitude towards modeling method is different from the traditional modeling method concept, and it gives the creators sufficient freedom. It is a new method and new modeling route to those receiving the traditional art education, so I have a breakthrough in model creation and more space in creation freedom.

　　III. The Ego of Creation

　　Art is an activity of pursuing the id, its highest state is to seek the true self. The original purpose of art creation is to express feelings and to convey emotions. Therefore, the creative impulse of the primitive paintings of human beings or childhood’s paintings comes from the needs of self-expression and conveying of feelings. With the most primitive figurative language and the methods not stylized, happiness and satisfaction can be sought through the clumsy performances of feelings and thoughts, the way of which is unrestrained, the essence of which is “a law without rules”. Fundamentally, the inspiration of the original arts aims at revealing the nature of arts. As a result, arts, when been developed to a certain level, will return to the original, from the state of “a law with rules” to that of “a law without rules”.

　　We are inspired that the reference to any art form during the creation aims at the expression of spirit which is considered as the highest state of arts. Arts, at last, return to the starting point, just like the developmental rules of all things. Thus, for any art form, we can borrow some of its expression ways as reference, study its rules and absorb its essence. But it doesn’t mean to copy. That is to say, an artwork creator should select the spiritual connotation of the referred art form according to its own needs on creation to make such aspects as the composition, the application of art language, the expression of space and the creation of art image be freely performed. When a creator is able to break the limitation of language expression, discover new ways to understand the world, and make art creation flexible, he is likely to reach the final goal of the totally free expression of the id.

　　Therefore, it is not the way to express that matters but the contents of the expression and the language used to express. I’ve tried my best to establish my own appropriate language code in order to meet my own expression needs. A serial of works, which I created around 2006, was obviously influenced by the traditional opera arts, the works based on which, I believe, have quite intensively reflected my exploration and thoughts.

　　1. Creative meditation

　　Painting in childhood is so pure. The needs of expression come to the first without realizing and considering the language method, even the way of expressing. Nowadays, art creation is still the guidance and expression of the affection, no matter in the freehand brushworks of the traditional Chinese paintings, the realistic paintings or the abstract paintings. Although such expression is not as penetrating and clear as word expression, it can arouse the same feelings in others. However, affection expression would not be deliberately considered in the preparation phase of creation, where one thinks in a more personalized way. In the process of creation, I prefer to follow my feeling to reach a spiritual satisfaction. This is not only my understanding of creation but also the measurement in creation. Nature has its own state, but its essence is still reflected in the accidental changes. Therefore, the creator should, according to his own observation and understanding of Nature, disentangle rationally and comprehensively, understand things in his own way and express what he has realized with his own personalized language. The imagination in creation always comes along with the improvement of observation, but not arouse without any reason. That is to say, the more we observe in daily life, the richer our imagination is, and in return, imagination also encourages us to observe more acutely. Nature is the source of my imagination, whenever i lose my inspiration in creation, I back to Nature for her help. In my own way, I express my understanding of Nature, like poets with poems, even though painting is implicit and can not express as clear as words can.

　　The conception of a work is the integration of the visual images in the mind of a creator and a full play of a creator’s imagination. In this stage, a creator should continuously release all kinds of information and images in his mind. The high-speed operation of the brain turns one’s memories towards images into imaginal thinking and releases it out, during which the subconscious of creating will be highly activated, and a picture image suitable to the intention will be generated. From my works you can find that I’ve tried to integrate all the information to my paintings so that they are harmonious and integrated. And so they are. Sometimes so many ideas come to my mind that the picture looks a little bit crowded when I cannot choose, but the good thing is that it looks congruous. The basic inclination of the art language in my creation has been reflected in the works.

　　In creation, I prefer to select images based on the subject instead of representing the objects. The image can be a horse or some part of a person, it is OK as long as the image can convey the needs of the subject, deliver my feelings and express my creative ideas. I’ve also tried to establish some space effect for the purpose of highlighting the theme or constituting the effect of a man-made picture, instead of representing the 3D space of Nature. Therefore, I take advantage of the effect of colors to coordinate the images and apply the relationship of the images, and arrange the picture according to the subject without applying too much 3D perspective techniques to deal with which part is the most important in the picture. Of course, the method to coordinate is varied.

　　2. Creative way

　　Conceiving and imagining is the first step. As imagination can open an unlimited art world from the limited art visualization, it is necessary to spend a long time on conceiving and imagining. The stimulation for creation impulse may be an accidental image, a drama; a picture got by chance, a piece of mottled texture or a stream of impulsive emotion etc. It doesn’t matter what is the original inspiration for art creation, what matters is that it is the inspiration from daily life,, because creative activity is initially based on our feelings and inspirations of the daily life.

　　To a creator, the creative idea is from his most familiar living environment, from the matters he concentrates and from the issues he cares. As the process of conception is varied and everyone has his own character and life experience, each one has his own way of thinking and his own interests. Some incline to present the ordinary and simple lifestyle; some are keen to draw the pictures full of philosophy symbolic; some like the strong and fluent style; while others love the tactful and exquisite style like poems. An ambitious artist should discover his own character and fully develop it.

　　Since the conception of the artistic creation is directly related to images, we might as well draw something casually on a piece of paper to gather up the threads when design. The handwriting that seems illegible and messy may not be a real draft. It is only the trace left by consciousness flow during the creation and thinking, a subconscious identification for thinking. But the original visible image will further stimulate the enthusiasm of imagination and impulsion of performance. When the excitement of creation collides with the passion, an insight feeling will come into the head as if wakening from a dream. Maybe it is the creative and inspirational flash. At this time, the knowledge, emotion, image and skill converge at some point, which is the tidemark pursued by the creative thinking.

　　Sometimes, we discover and generate the original conception from our life; sometimes, the form and language of the materials trigger our imagination; sometimes, some emotion appears firstly, and then we go to seek a carrier appropriate for expressing the emotion; sometimes image appears firstly, which then triggers emotion; sometimes, the preference of some color makes us find out the deep moral hidden in the color; sometimes some abstract image association makes us generate more subjective and philosophical thinking. In arts, the “Image Out of the Image” and “Flavor Out of the Flavor” are deemed as super aesthetics. Consequently it also becomes the principle of grasping image in my creation. Therefore, this artistic state will also give the creator the spiritual enjoyment and pleasure for the creator. It‘s the most beckoning image. The second step is the layout of the conceptive picture: Before starting to paint, it is needed to process the canvas, an important part to inspire the image and rich the innovation. The basic structure, some images and even the whole hue of the picture may be changed due to the influence of the canvas.

　　Lay the canvas on the ground and process the underpainting with water-based acrylic paint by spraying the paint on the canvas to get a solid but not rigid effect. Such way can create occasional effects but can also inspire your boundless imagination, even arouse totally new ideas on creation. The canvas itself provides me a space for imagination. After processing the canvas, I made the final decision of how to use the canvas-a preliminary combination of the inspiration from object images and subjective imaginations. To reach such a status for creation, you need to give yourself over to this process; any disturbance will break the air. The third step is sketching: there is no need to focus on the details of a draft so it will not become a limitation for creation and can give a painter more creative space to express his emotion at any moment. That’s way modern oil paintings provide painters a wider and freer space for imagination and representation during composition. Since there is a close relation between composition and detailed representation, it’s hard to see them as two separated parts. For a painter, during the process of creating, his soul dialogues with each image on the painting, each combination of the images means some thing special for him; even a line might have its unique implication, expressing the emotion and thoughts of the creator. On the base, I will divide the picture into several areas in the geometrical form. The division of the areas is decided by the needs of conception, such as the soft, conflicting, or stable or other kind of messages the painter wants to deliver. The purpose is to emphasize the feeling needed by the theme and to develop the atmosphere needed in the picture.

　　The fourth step is establishing images: after representing the basic conception on the canvas, a painter shall have the ability to catch occasional changes to perfect the images. A limited space or condition will limit human’s imagination, but the occasional changes in nature can give a painter unlimited space for composition and create unlimited possibilities for image development. So during this stage, some images get by accidences are very rare and precious, and shall be kept cautiously, for they are not the production of normal thoughts. During the process of creation, a painter shall rich the images with his imagination based on the original composition, so more images will come up under the brush of the painter with the development and changes of his imagination. Colors will also play a very important role in this stage, where creative ideas meet with imagination. I’ve found that the hazy color effect can also be a natural part of the painting if they are used appropriately, and a combination of composition, underpainting and texture can create some unexpected color effects. Keeping and further developing such beautiful color effects can help a painter to better establish the subject. A saying goes like “Chance favors only the prepared minds.”, so only with eyes keen to beauty; with a heart devoted to art; and a brain always discovering, thinking and with rich imagination, could a painter catch and well use occasional effects. Wonderful art forms also favor hearts sensitive to beauty and prepared eyes.

　　Creation grows from the original idea, which also becomes richer with the development of creation. During such process, the theme of the painting will be clear and jump out from the background based on the subjective composition. Only when the objective structure and the subjective composition become a natural part of each other, or even penetrate into each other harmoniously, could a painter finish the work by closely following the thread of his thoughts. In addition, to complete a work, you also need to take examples from the predecessor’s artistic achievements, from other artists and other artistic formations, and think deeply about that. The way of completing a work is broad, but in whatever various ways you receive the information, the essence of deciding the direction of the work creation is to define the artistic idea by yourself, that is the most important thing.

　　Step five: adjustment before completion. When a work is to be finished, I always suspend the creation to give myself some time for thinking, during which the picture would be appropriately adjusted. The principle for the adjustments is whether the picture has realized the initial conception of the creation or not, whether the shape and the color fit in with the general intention of the conception or not; and whether the development of the picture atmosphere is suitable for the content or not and so on, which are the basic process of my creation.

　　3. My Idea for Creation

　　Artistic creation is one of the most important parts in my life. Over these years of my artistic career, the idea I have been insisting is “perfect arts come from unremitting practices”. When creating a work, I always devote myself into the creation so that I could express my feelings and thoughts freely to reach a spiritual self-satisfaction, to meet the aesthetic requirements of the visitors, to bring a visual strike to them; and to give them the joyful sense in spirit. The nature of art is to motivate an emotion which can arouse the same of the visitors. So, as a painter, only if satisfying his own spiritual requirements first could he move the visitors with his work.

　　In the creation conception of modern art, imaginations and fantasies are so encouraged and inspired which is helpful for stimulating the creator’s creativity as a positive force. Inspired by this positive idea, i endeavor to seek for the representation of the most primitive emotion. Not young any more, I still keep the memory of my artistic desire of childhood. I cherish the purity, innocence and simpleness of childhood when one could candidly express his thoughts and feelings. But now, it is a luxury desire for me to pay full attention to something. In the painting world, human’s spirit is free to wander idly. One who devotes himself to creation is happy, and his heart is light and graceful. Though sometimes it is painful, bothering, helpless and wondering during creation, art never cheats you. As long as you are sincerely involved in it, you will receive the satisfaction in spirit. The highest pursuit of my lifetime creation is to create beautiful things, have a clear and purified heart, and a broader mind.

　　During creation, I dialogue with the ancients and try to understand the reality and feelings of their lives. I am also deeply influenced by the conception of modern art-free and fluent expressions and devoted creation state which combines the spirits with work as if living in a dream.

　　Art is changeable, it is easy to change with the creator’s temperament and it produces new requirements with the development of times. On the other hand, such characteristic is also the motivation to promote art to develop constantly. Therefore, it is challenging for a creator to explore the possibility of art creation, which is also the attraction for me. An artist should constantly challenge, scout for new representation space as well as explore and accumulate artistic languages which are suitable for certain moments, places and feelings.