· Art is not something learned; it is what remains. Remove everything that is not truly yours, and what is left is art.
· Experience and borrowing are the ore; insight is the fire. The predecessors are fingers pointing at the moon. But the moon must be seen with one’s own eyes.
· True art must be unprecedented. It must arise from the authentic feeling of the self, filled with sincerity. It is a birth, not a repetition.
· Do not paint for the title of “artist.” That is only a shadow. Simply walk toward the light.
· Emotions have no hierarchy, only truth or falseness. The deeper you cut into yourself, the more people you illuminate.
· Technique only needs to be sufficient. It is like using chopsticks to eat: as long as they can pick up the food, that is enough.
· A person of clear spiritual perception can see compassion even in a cabbage.
· Form is the skeleton; spirit is the breath. If form outweighs spirit, there is only an empty shell. If spirit outweighs form, it becomes exaggeration—noisy and hollow. A skeleton without breath is a specimen; breath without a skeleton is a soul adrift.
· What is metaphysical easily falls into empty shouting; what is material often remains trapped in the shell of appearances.
· True art leaves invisible breath within visible brushstrokes.
· So-called style is not designed. It evolves naturally and is lived into being.
· Do not always think about “innovation.” When one is honest enough, it becomes difficult not to be new.
· There is one test of whether a painting is good: ten years later, when you look at it again, you can still remember the state of mind from the day it was painted—fresh, living, and vivid.
· The highest state of art is not to make people exclaim, “How well it is painted,” but to make them fall silent and think.
· In the end, painting is a way of breathing. Some breathe with the lungs; others breathe with the heart.
“Chen Jiuteng’s Los Angeles Senxiangism exhibition hall is located at Unique Home Art Gallery in Los Angeles.”
Address: 653 S Melrose St., Placentia, CA 92870
