When I first came into contact with artist Jianming, I didn't pay much attention, I just thought he was a very meticulous artist. After accidentally subscribing to his Little Red Book and seeing more of his daily creations, I became more curious about his work. In 2023, Jianming held a solo exhibition at the Shenzhen Sea World Art Center, which gave me the opportunity to attend the opening symposium. I gained a lot of valuable insights from it. These simple ideas are worth questioning for professionals in the field of art and design.
Maintain a free and open attitude, don't let style or medium define you#
When creating, we don't have to limit the references and inspirations of our own works to a certain style. Your work should be a fusion of different cultures that you have come into contact with.
Jianming does not consider his work to be a continuation of a certain style, and the anime style that he is known for is just a visual language that is naturally used. In his growth process, the complex world of comics and movies has had a great influence on him. He does not like to be limited by certain rules or strict classifications, but prefers to explore different types and the fusion between different boundaries.
Similarly, in terms of creative mediums, there is no need to limit oneself to painting, printmaking, or sculpture. He uses sketches as a base for sculpting because it is easy to erase and make adjustments, making it convenient for taking notes and depicting different angles. He also enjoys experimenting with new materials for printmaking, and these new attempts are made to bring the artwork closer to his expectations.
AI will make artists more valuable#
With the development of technology, art has become more and more popular, and images have become more and more accessible. We have cameras and various editing software. In this era, becoming an excellent artist is more difficult, but also more challenging and interesting.
Jianming mentioned that he uses AI to generate many options for his works to help him quickly eliminate impractical ideas. But this does not mean that AI can replace artists. Artistic creation is not just about how to create a work, but about the artist's taste, the post-editing and processing of the work, and how to make choices in artistic creation.
He gives an example using music. Nowadays, it is very easy to write a song, even elementary school students can use software to add beats and chords to create a song. So, if a musician only knows traditional techniques, they will eventually decline. On the other hand, if an artist has excellent skills and their own unique style, they will be seen as someone who possesses magic, like a magician.
Endure boring work and create valuable works#
I want to say two things to newcomers in the art industry, or it can be said as one thing. First, diligence is more important than talent. Second, true talent is actually an ability, it is the ability to endure all the ordinary things in order to achieve your goals.
For Jianming, true talent is reflected in creating valuable works through mundane work. He knows that to turn dreams into reality, it inevitably requires hard work and training. As an artist, one should not just wait for inspiration to come, but actively pursue and capture different ideas every day. In this process, one will encounter various problems and create new inspirations.
As an example, he explores various fields of interest such as painting, sketching, and photography. As someone who loves taking photos, he has accumulated a large number of photos on his phone. Using his phone for quick editing has become a method for him to stimulate his thinking. As an artist, he constantly faces countless problems waiting to be solved, and it is these problems that drive him to move forward.
Trust your intuition#
In painting, there are indeed some difficult situations where you wonder how to continue and complete the artwork. If you can find a way to get through this difficult time, the final work may be better than you expected.
Jianming believes that painting is a process of decision-making. His method is to follow his intuition and use a more stream-of-consciousness approach. He doesn't deliberately decide whether to do this or that, but believes in his intuition. He decides which artwork to create today and which artwork to bring to an exhibition. When a painting reaches a certain stage, he relies more on his feelings to decide whether to continue adding to it or to stop. Therefore, he believes that painting is sometimes a natural and organic process of growth.
During the lecture, I became sleepy because of the boring questions, but Jianming's answers brought the various abstract questions back to his creative philosophy. These ideas may seem like "correct nonsense," but from a different perspective, there are no secrets in creation. Developing habits of accumulating materials, devoting oneself to painting, and constantly trying new creative techniques are not easy in practice. I had a period of doubt about my own creativity, but after attending Jianming's offline symposium, the doubt did not disappear. However, I realized that this doubt is part of the creative process, and the creative process is a process of fighting against this doubt.