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My body of work in this thesis, consisting of four series of ink-and-wash paintings that feature memories of the land, aims to arouse viewers’ feelings about the land we live on and our attention and care for the environment around us. These nativist-realistic paintings blend ink and color together with sketching techniques so as to represent the characteristics of my homeland landscape and soil as well as to depict my beautiful homeland memories. In addition, the nativist works of some senior and predecessor painters in Taiwan and their realistic techniques in those works are studied and analyzed closely. By comparing their forms of expression and painting techniques with my work, I believe that a work depicting homeland landscape should be not only a display of an artist’s realistic skills but also a revealing of an artist’s affection for the home soil. At the same time, an artist should conceive the issues between real life and environmental protection and have an honest and reflective conversation with the pulse of society. The first-hand experience as a little child growing up in the countryside has become my important inspiration and elements from which I draw for my artistic creation. With ink and color, I use painting as a critical and reflective practice to convey personal memories, feelings, and observations about living on the native land. Therefore, these four series of the paintings, namely, “The Symphony of Pastoral Life,” “Songs of Rice Ears,” “Hope for the Future,” and “Childhood Memories,” are created in a metaphorical attempt to express my awareness of and concern about contemporary rural land issues in Taiwan and, above all, to represent personal feelings and memories via the native landscape.
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