2011

I fell in love with clay when I took Introduction to Ceramics in my senior year of university. When my hands touched clay, I felt that it’s something down-to-earth. I felt it’s friendly and allowed me to express my concepts of art. I was greatly moved and astonished that after being fired at high temperature, clay—a material which is an inexhaustible supply on the Mother Earth—could be transformed into permanent containers.
 
I was raised in an open-minded and educated family. I had been especially interested in craft courses in my childhood and blessedly my parents had never stopped me from pursuing my passion. When I majored in Fine Arts in postgraduate school, I received more solid and basic training.
 
My first job was in the Ceramics studio of Conservation Dept. at the NPM in Taipei as a ceramics researcher. When I was there, I had opportunities to observe world-class cultural and historical relics, to read a great deal of literature on ceramics and the history of ceramics, and to dissect material and glaze theories as well as operations of furnaces wholeheartedly. Because my experiences in the United States could not be applied, I had to undertake a comprehensive research project from scratch, which was a formidable task considering limited access to information during that time. I remembered that when I opened the kiln door and found that I finally managed to see an all-blue Lungch’uan-style vase with two
phoenix-shaped handles after six months of efforts, I was so thrilled that I felt like electricity going through my body. It’s an unforgettable memory even it was thirty years ago. After numerous experiments and trials, I became a master of kiln firing. Because of years of persistence, later I was finally able to integrate western techniques with materials from Taiwan to present my creative ideas about ceramics.
 
After I opened a studio in Kaohsiung in 1980, I attended workshops in the United States and Canada to learn experience from the systematic workshops in other countries. I opened up my studio to offer ceramics courses and organized conferences and seminars in cultural centers. There were several times that local counterparts and I visited pottery towns in Japan. Weekend fairs and exhibitions were also hosted and subsequently gave birth to the “Hautao” group. When Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts was about to be established, I was invited to provide suggestions for a detailed layout arrangement for its ceramics studio and to assist in editing the ceramics curriculum. This opportunity allowed me to share to more people the beauty of ceramic art and the basic knowledge and skills of ceramic making.
 
For more than two decades, I have been looking for a kind of style which can reveal characteristics of vessels while at the same time be something viewers can easily relate to. During this time, I switched my focus from vessels to large ceramic murals. This change of focus was influenced by the passage of the Public Art Grant Act, which gave artists more opportunities to leverage public spaces and showcase their works of art. My works are built based on artistic elements and design theory. They take advantage of outdoor-friendly characteristics of ceramics and use patterns of rocks, leaves, fruits, shells, currents, and etc. to portray the relationships among human beings, the earth, and the nature.
 
Through numerous years, the styles of my works have been altered several times. They have witnessed my growth as I go through different stages of life of being an artist, a wife, and a mother. Living in southern Taiwan for many years, I have been inspired by the diversity of plants and intense sunlight in the subtropical zone. In my mural artwork, I have continued to try out different combinations of colors and materials to express my perspectives on arts and attitudes towards life.
 
I have always felt grateful for helps and encouragement that many friends have given me and the freedom that my family has provided me.
 
Lastly, I would like to express my special thanks to the Yingge Ceramics Museum and the jury committee of this year for their recognition and honor.

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