Note from the Editor  

Invited by the Taichung City Seaport Art Center, Shien-Mao Lin presents his A Return to Indulgence Rippling in the Colouristic Shades – Shien-Mao Lin Oil Paintings Exhibition 2018 in which we are invited to his artistic journey of the ongoing dialogue between the narrative-based deconstruction and construction. The exhibition features more than fifty paintings in four subjects:“Rosy Centurion Carps Series,”Elegant Dancing Series,“Vibrant Magnificence Series,”and“Gypsophila Paniculate Series,”allowing visitors to closely enjoy the fascinating colors and the vigorous lines of soft strength.

Growing up in a medical family, Mr. Lin's obsession to art magazines began early when the young kid found himself attracted by the art masterpieces on the front cover of his father's medical journals, and the obsession naturally led to the love for painting. At that time, Western paintings were not as accessible as they are nowadays, so the young art enthusiast frequently visited the library to check out art-related publications and, with the same eagerness, to expand his knowledge of painting. At high school, he would prepare all the tools needed for the art class promptly, even though the one-hour class was only once a week:“he was probably the only one in the class with such investment, and because of his passion for painting, he took it seriously.”The devotion never goes away even until now. For decades, the artist has always shown the same uncompromised seriousness about artmaking not only when he is thinking about his painting but also when he has the brush in his hand.

“Painters are invincible, but when we are facing the canvas, we become our biggest enemies, and the perfect command of palette knives busy between the palette and canvas seems to demonstrate the determination and self-confidence of a surgeon with a scalpel in one's hand.”Mr. Lin believes that what appears in an artwork is the sign externally visualizing the artist's mind. In other words, it is the image of the mind.  Therefore, when it comes to artmaking, it takes him a lot of time to think about the work itself but to finish the work is much faster. What really matters is to bring back the significance of existence and to find one's true self. The battle against oneself throughout the process is an eternal challenge, but the artist should head toward the future when making art at the present.

   Where does one's inspiration come from? How to use palette knives? How to make use of art note? How to deal with colors and color patches? When will the Elegant Dancing Series come to an end? How these artists interact, using their artistic saturation and transferability to express the rich and full-of-twists life experiences with a sense of abandon, is closely connected to the spirit of the works. When we see Mr. Lin painting: the splendid colors make us believe that they can only be created by the great universe, and the rhythmic image is ready to jump out of the canvas to dance with us. The agitating lines and sober color patches reveal the artist's quiet but yet lively state of mind. In his portraits, from the realistic, figurative, to the semi-abstract, the still images belong to the past while humans as the miniature of time have to face the future. Therefore, the image in his work features a sense of time and speed, deconstructing all forms and bodies to create illusion and reversing all lines, colors, and color patches to fantasize.  With his surrealistic spirit, Mr. Lin paints what he sees with his senses, leading to an endless journey of ascending and returning.