Fine Art Exhibition of Chia-Na, Chang - The business of laying on the colors follows the preparation of the plain ground.｜Taichung City Seaport Art Center

It is a reply by Confucius to Tsze-hsia 's query about the Book of Poetry, from the Analects of Confucius: " The business of

laying on the colors follows the preparation of the plain ground." The full text is as follows:

Tsze-hsia asked, saying, “What is the meaning of the passage --‘The pretty dimples of her artful smile! The well-defined black and white of her

eye! The plain ground for the colors?’” The Master said, “The business of laying on the colors follows the preparation of the plain ground.” “Ceremonies then are a subsequent

thing?” The Master said, “It is Shang who can bring out my meaning. Now I can begin to talk about the odes with him.”

At the beginning of the conversation, Tsze-hsia asked Confucius for advice as to why it was necessary to describe the beauty of Madam Zhuang-Jiang's face in the Book of Songs? What is the purpose of it? Confucius replied: “The business of laying on the colors follows the preparation of the plain ground.” This means that a piece of white silk or raw silk fabric must be laid as a plain base before painting, and then the color can be applied. In other words, the plain ground is the basic preparation that takes place before the painting.

The plain ground is used as a metaphor for the innate beauty of appearance, which is the plain quality of beauty; the painting is used as a metaphor for good looks, with a beautiful smile and flexible eyes, and elegant bearing, which is the gesture of

beauty. So first the quality of beauty, then the gesture of beauty, like adding color to a plain ground. Expand the notion that

everything has its own unique beauty. These are all directions to think about: How to capture the most suitable posture to present or uncover the essence that has been obscured by various disturbances. It is also a way of repeatedly training myself in the process of painting, allowing the mind to express the breath of life with a clearer vision; and trying other ways of seeing things that are invisible to the naked eye, allowing our own invisible perception to feel the transformation of tangible life.

Time flies, decades of life have passed, during which the

various experiences have accumulated and shaped the essence of my soul. I use my brush to depict the separation of life and death, to express my inner feelings, and to reveal the scenes and emotions of various people living in the world. All of these are the processes of painting on the plain ground. Through this

exhibition, I hope to present the process of self-purification over the past few years, so that the public can "see" the world from a different perspective through my vision.