Written by Professor Joseph Wang╱ Ph.D. in Western Art History and Archeology at Université Paris-Sorbonne．Former Chairperson and Director of Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University．Adjunct Professor in Industrial Design Department at Shih Chien University

In a sunny afternoon, I was invited to visit Ms. Kuei Hua Lin, the artist of “iMeet Studio.” On the back of her namecard, I saw that she quoted First Visit to the Red Cliff, a poem by Su Shi, the famous poet of the Song Dynasty poet: “Only the cool breeze on the river and the bright moon over the hills serve as music to our ears and color to our eyes, which we can take freely and enjoy forever; these are inexhaustible treasures supplied by the Creator, and things in which we can delight together.” She particularly put the sentence “color to our eyes” in bold, which clearly illustrated the origin of the name “iMeet Studio.” On the front side, Ms. Kuei Hua Lin overlapped three rectangles in three primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and put small circles in secondary colors such as orange, green, and purple in the overlapped area. The design not only shown her realization of “how to make the right color when you really need it” after reading Michael Wilcox’s book Blue and Yellow don’t make Green, but also revealed her definite ideal to fully interpret Nature with colors. Indeed, Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s inspiration always came from the “infinite” nature, while the bright colors in her paintings glorified the beauty, the myth, and the life of the Universe.

Ms. Kuei Hua Lin is not an academically trained artist. She has experienced many twists and turns throughout her artistic practice. However, it was definitely not an accident for her to enter the world of art. She has always been interested in painting since she was a child, and all her siblings are good at it. When she studied in the Department of Home Economics at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), she often had a chance to go to the exhibitions presented by the Department of Fine Arts. It thus evoked her curiosity and longing for the world of painting. After graduating from NTNU in 1975, she started her teaching career, went to the USA for advanced studies, started to work, fell in love with somebody, got married, and became a mother. Not until her children were grown up and her husband’s business was established could she really put down her domestic burden, being fully devoted to painting.

Her husband’s newly established firm required her to travel between Taiwan and the USA frequently. Therefore, she always took her off-work time to study with artists such as Mark Stickland, John Paul Thornton, Anny Kwon at Pasadena Center of Fine Art and Art Center College of Design-Pasadena in California, where she fundamentally consolidated her drawing skill. Her painting thus shows how she was academically influenced but without any academic burden of the conservative styles. She frankly shares with us that “I have tried every technique I can to express my unique feeling; once I master some technique, I will liberate myself from the conventional style to freely express myself.” When it comes to painting, she has a very clear mind and an interim goal to explore. She will never confine herself to an unchangeable dead end.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), the founder of an artist group in Germany “Der Blaue Reiter” and a pioneer of Abstract Art, published the book Point et ligne par rapport à la surface in 1926. The book was the principle he taught at Staatliches Bauhaus, Germany as well as the artistic concept he followed. From the geometric aspect, Kandinsky believes that a “point” is where three invisible plains meet. Therefore, the size of it equals “zero,” which signifies “commencement,” “origine” – “origo” in Latin. From the aspect of spirituality, “le point mystique” means “secret maçonnique.” In other words, it is “le grand dans l’infinitésimal” – the “divinité,” the “infini,” the most powerful of the smallest signs. It is the element representing “origin,” “regeneration,” and “initiation.” (Wassily Kandinsky, Écrits complets-La synthèse des arts, Denoël-Gonthier, Paris, 1975, p.223.)

Kandinsky also believes that the materialization of the invisible geometric object (“point”) is determined by three material properties, including “la dimension,” “la forme,” and “la couleur.” What the three material properties experiences during the process “to accumulate points into a line” or “to accumulate lines into a plane” is not the “qualitative change” but the “quantitative change.” Therefore, Kandinsky is strongly convinced that “a point alone may be sufficient for the most complex expressions” (Kandinsky, op. cit. p.224: “que le point à lui seul peut suffire à des expressions les plus complexes”).

Ms. Kuei Hua Lin elaborates Kandinsky’s fundamental concept of point, line, and plane, and she further points out the infinity of “line”: “line is infinite.” As an artist who always thinks meticulously, she says with confidence that “line is a very crucial element for a successful painting for that it is mostly used to represent a new concept or to demonstrate a central idea. It is infinite and experimental, offering an ideal training to form an idea or a concept. Line is also the most economic index to represent a space as well as the major element to establish the relationship between paper’s surface and image. It can be used to analyze, and it can be used as a method to transform the abstract thinking into the visual form. There is nothing better than line when it comes to transforming the three dimensional world into the two dimensional form. We can even say that line has the best fun – everyone has definitely experienced the fun of free drawing!”

Ms. Kuei Hua Lin is aware of the infinite potentiality of line: “it can be used to sketch, it can be used for mechanical or architectural function, it can be lyrical, limited, aggressive, hand-written, calligraphic, suggestive, fantastic, and it can be many other things. It can visualize strength and speed. It can represent the tidy, the undisciplined, the beautiful, and the ugly. Artists seldom limit it to a particular form when using it.” Her statement demonstrates the foundation of her artistic practice, which attempts to establish an image “with line as the focus.”

Since line is accumulated by infinite points and the property of “point” will not experience any qualitative transformation, we can claim that line is infinite. Such a statement is logically correct and acceptable. According to her instinct, she divides line into two categories: “the controllable line” and “the out-of-control line.” “Humans are full of contradictions – ” she says, “in a controllable life, the stability and the lack of challenge make we humans to feel bored while the unknown future makes us feared. Therefore, some who are willing to tolerate the repetitive and unchangeable life style choose to stay in the comfort zone forever, while some try to liberate themselves from the preexisting frame to accept the unknown change, without feeling regret even when being frustrated. It seems that prosperity is comforting while frustration is painful. However, the wonderful thing is that the experience of suffering sublimates our souls, bringing us incomparable happiness.” She further explains it in plain term that “I use controllable line to depict the beauty of stability, but I am more interested in using the out-of-control line to stir the emotions. The combination of both creates the vivid beauty.” Such a categorization seems to be sentimental, but it indeed reflects the connection between art-making and “consciousness.” In most of the cases, artists are conscious when working on their works of art, so the lines they create are “controllable lines.” In some of the cases, however, they are engaged in certain subconscious or semi-conscious state, so the lines they paint are not consciously controlled by moral logic. They become the “out-of-control lines,” casual and unrestrained. No matter what kind of style she paints, both “the conscious line” and “unconscious line” will keep each other’s company in a most appropriate way: “I like to intertwine both kinds of lines, bringing a harmonious but yet vivid touch to the paintings.”

After experimenting with various kinds of “painting materials” and “non-painting materials,” Ms. Kuei Hua Lin has come to the realization that “technique” and “material” cannot be separate when painting. It is necessary to be familiar with each material’s unique quality if one wishes to adopt various expressive styles. Therefore, right now at this point of her artistic practice, it is not her major concern to pursue a style with a unified form and unified material. However, a “style” is an individual artist’s unique method one adopts to practice his/her art (J. P. Néraudau, Dictionnaire d’histoire de l’art, Quadrige/Presses Universitaires de France, p. 443.), the “style” without a style can still be regarded as a “style.” Furthermore, Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s recent paintings are in a stage to pursue an image “with lines as its focus” as mentioned above, no matter it is between still life and still life, or between landscape and landscape, or between still life and landscape…; The styles are not unified, but each work all discusses how “lines” play a crucial role in the painting.

Michigan Lakeside (2006, Acrylic on canvas, 88 x 188 cm) is one of the examples. The painting with immediate fluency, harmonious colors, poetic atmosphere, and melodious beauty visualizes the magnificent and mythical nature in such a perfect way. According to Ms. Kuei Hua Lin, the origin of the painting could be dated back to the year of 2006, when she went to Chicago to visit her daughter who was pursuing the Ph.D degree in Neuroscience at Northwestern University. One day, she took a walk to the lakeside early in the morning. When sun rose, she saw the cloud approaching the lake surface above the vast, ocean-like Lake Michigan. The dawn light and the fresh air mingle with each other, deeply touching her heart. On her way home, she went directly to the shop, waiting there till the shop opened to buy some acrylic materials, paintbrushes, and canvas. When she got home, she removed all the furniture in her daughter’s tiny room and spread the canvas on the floor to paint, visualizing her excited emotions into a painting. The Romanticists painted the emotional ups-and-downs of Mother Nature, and the Symbolists materialized the poetry-like singing praise. Similarly, Ms. Kuei Hua Lin adopts various lines – the rising and the descending, the rapid and the slow-moving, the gathered and the spread – to accumulate points into lines and lines into planes in a powerful and unrestrained way.

Likewise, Ms. Kuei Hua Lin also follows the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724~1804) who focuses on the sublime beauty of nature. She makes her greatest effort to capture the rushing current in Glacier (2010, oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm) or the last ray of light coming before the darkness in Sunset at North Cape (2010, oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm) with dark and cold colors. “Line” plays a decisive role in the work Glacier. It is the contour of the river and the rocks as well as their movements and textures. It is the color, the light, and the shadow. It is the gleaming reflection and the spray being visualized, while it is also the abstract energy and rhythm. It is a real objectwhile it is also a symbol. As for the cryptic Universe in the painting Sunset at North Cape, the alternate uses of blue and orange lines allows Ms. Kuei Hua Lin to represent both light and darkness as well as ephemerality and eternity.

Giant Bird of Paradise (2011, oil on canvas, 112 x145 cm) is a realistic work with symbolic style. From “the observation on nature” to “the simplification of nature” and further to “the purification of nature,” Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s artistic practice has been based on nature – “selon la nature” as how the great modern artist Paul Cézanne puts it. Meanwhile, her “symbolization” is not merely “according to nature” but also “according to the self of the artist.” There is no transition in the color gradation or brightness when painting the purified leaves. The only thing visualized is a clear comparison among separate colors and different degrees of brightness. Therefore, the colors are flat, pure, and balanced. The white bird-of-paradise appears to be particularly fresh in contrast with the purple flowers. Line indeed plays a precise and multiple role in this work for that it determines the contour of the leaves and the direction of the veins while it also represents the location and the depth of the light blue current. It is the ripples and the reflection. It is the flowing air and the melody for us to hear.

Best of Show (2006, watercolor on paper, 76 x 56 cm) is another painting with bird-of-paradise as its subject. Ms. Kuei Hua Lin seems to have mastered the property of the paint while working on this watercolor painting. When she puts the colors in layers, she takes the advantage of the time difference between the wet paint and the wet paint to create various effects such as color wash or different color-layers added. When she uses needle tube to inject thin lines of different colors, she particularly gains more control and creates unexpected effect of variations. The colors of the lines are decided by the need. The weeds around the bird-of-paradise are visualized with intertwined colors in citron yellow, orange, and green. Some of them are fragmented while some of them are continuous. Some of them move fast while some of them move slowly. They naturally materialize light-and-shadow of the weeds in a realistic but yet abstract way.

There is an anecdote about the extraordinary painting Wild Chrysanthemum (2005, watercolor on paper, 76 x 56 cm). One of Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s college friends is very fond of photography. She often goes mountain trekking with her husband, takes beautiful photos, and uploads the photos on the internet to share with friends. One day, Ms. Kuei Hua Lin saw a photo of a beautiful wild chrysanthemum on the roadside, so she painted it into a half-sheet watercolor painting. Later, she heard that her friend had just moved to a new place, so she sent the framed painting as a gift. To Lin’s surprise, Lin’s friend told Lin that she also had a friend who had just moved and she sent the framed photo as a gift to her friend too. They looked at each other and started to laugh for that how they both thought of the same thing! However, the photographed wild chrysanthemum and the painted wild chrysanthemum indeed have different touches of beauty. Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s Wild Chrysanthemum features an unrestrained spirit, perfectly balancing the thick, light, dried, and wet paints as well as the black spaces. The precisely depicted light yellow petals refuse to surrender, accompanied by the solid and firm pistils. Both of them are constructed by unbridled points and lines. Such a spirit which represents the tidiness with audacity is worth the praise.

There are two paintings with distinctive themes: Wind Brown Fabric Carp (2012, oil on canvas, 130 x162 cm) and Paper Blue Magpie (2012, oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm). Ms. Kuei Hua Lin puts the fluttering “fabric carps” and “paper blue magpies” in the realistic scene, transforming the real world into a surrealistic dream in a blink. “A Wind Brown Fabric Carp is different from the usual landscape paintings,” she says, “for that I put a long line and a paper carp fluttering with the wind in the foreground. It is like that someone attaches a long rope to the window from inside the house, and the rope is also attached to a fabric carp fluttering with the wind, echoing the wind blowing far away in the maple woods with stark branches.” Indeed, a fabric carp in five colors (red, orange, yellow, green, and blue) is attached to a long line which is painted from the left to the right on the lower part of the painting. The colorful carp thus brings some “human touch” to the stark branches of the maple trees where no human being has been spotted. The realistic scene is transformed into the visualization of the artist’s “inner scene.” Ms. Kuei Hua Lin further talks about Paper Blue Magpies: “I use the same idea to paint the upper part of the central foreground. I paint several fabrics and put two paper blue magpies which are about to jump down attached to the fabric with two silk lines, as a comparison with the murmuring stream outside the window. One might even hear the resonance between the stream and the bird chirping.” At first, the fabric on the upper part of the painting shows the artist’s intention to transform the realistic scene of the stream into a world of fantasy. Especially when the two paper blue magpies tied with the silk lines are about to spread the wings and ready to soar, a primitive atmosphere full of magic rises up with the four white eyes of the blue magpies. These two paintings are like twin sisters in a surrealistic family, impressing us with their mélancolie and poetic touch. I am particularly fond of such a “mélancolie” feeling which can only be found in French literature or French art. These lines with various rhythms and directions are the key element to create a unified form.

Last but not least, I would like to talk about Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s pastel paintings. Pastel is an ancient painting medium. It was first mentioned in the year of 1495 by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Later, Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), the Italian artist from Venice, and the French artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788) both used pastel to create portraits which were as delicate, thick, and solid as oil paintings. In the 18th Century, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), the Rococo artist in France, mixed pastel with opaque watercolor to create extraordinarily realistic figure portrait. In the 19h Century, the French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834- 1917) started to use pastel since his eyes were seriously damaged by oil paint, and he thus created numerous pastel painting masterpieces with the trendy charm of fashion as his subjects such as milliners, opera houses, and ballet dance. The American painters Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844-1926) and Leon Dabo (1868-1960) both mastered pastel painting too. The delicate rays of light catches our attention in Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s Gift Basket (2009, pastel & oil on paper, 76 x 56 cm). The two paintings about orchids – Glimmer of Light (2012, pastel on paper, 76 x 56 cm), Orchids at Noon (2012, pastel on paper, 76 x 56 cm) feature the beautiful color-play between light and shadow while the hidden lines are only revealed in the glistening parts. The colors in Remembrance (2006, pastel on paper, 64 x 50 cm) refresh our souls with some lyrical and poetic touch. Mid-afternoon (2010, pastel on paper, 76 x 56 cm) creates a whisper between the contrasting colors inside and outside the window. The light-and-shadow is particularly delicate on the red tablecloth with white pattern, bringing all the tea set and the “Yunnan Seven Tea Cake” back to life. All the mentioned above prove her exquisite skill in pastel painting. If she can create more variations when mixing the different colors of the pastel paints, she will definitely reach a new level of pastel painting.

Although it is Ms. Kuei Hua Lin’s first solo exhibition and it still takes time to sort out her personal style, Ms. Lin’s concept and phased direction are explicit and definite. Her “confidence and sincerity” are particularly impressive: “I have always believed that as long as I have strong interest, observation ability, diligence, courage to try something new, and persistence, I can find my own path! Besides, it takes no language to paint, so I should give it a try at any cost!” It is the right spirit for a professional artist. Based on her words, I reexamine her works. Indeed, she has made it! However, I have higher expectation on her because her talent is full of potentiality. Hopefully, she will further enrich the lines’ interactive relationship with “planes” and “points,” creating more variations in color gradation. I am definitely looking forward to her next exhibition!