The homeland of heart and soul
"Although I had long been drawing works featuring images of Taiwan, I didn't have strong motivation for doing so or a clear conception of what I was doing," he says. "But when I was drawing devil's ivy, my thoughts came more clearly into focus with each brush stroke." He used the simplest of tools (a calligraphic brush) as well as the simplest of techniques (line drawing) to record all that he had heard, thought and felt. The works range in size from a postcard, to A4 paper, to a door panel.
"Just as monks arise early to recite scripture day after day, so have I worked on these day after day." Lin thus describes why he has chosen to meticulously apply layer after layer of dots and lines with a calligraphic brush.
"The size of each dot and the pressure applied when making it reflect the rise and fall of emotions at that very moment. Works of art provide a window onto the inner state of their creator, which is sometimes easy going and peaceful and sometimes restless and wandering." His wife and daughters have emmigrated to the United States, and in their absence he has covered his bedroom door with a sheet of paper. Every morning he works on it for an hour. Although it remains unfinished after three months of work, he still has unflagging enthusiasm for the task.
To him, the island of Taiwan is like a vessel for holding creative material, filled with what he experiences every day. "You can engage in quiet observation in every aspect of your life. Often, without thinking about it, I observe the existence of a Taiwan style in common surroundings." Through his artistic rendering, Taiwan is clouds; it is mountain ridges, swimming fish, frangi pani, vines.... Each of his works holds deep feelings for and great expectations about his native land.
Since 2007, whenever he has gone on a business trip, whether in Taiwan or abroad, he has turned his observations and thoughts into a visual image of Taiwan, which he draws on a postcard and sends to himself. Serving to document their time and space, these postcards have featured the easy-going, happy lines of Rome, and the musical rhythms of Vienna. He plans on accumulating them for ten years in order to finish his "Letters Home to Taiwan" series. The next installment in this series, a piece created in watermarks, is expected to be unveiled in 2010.
Lin often quotes a common saying: "You can't choose your natural homeland, but you can choose your spiritual homeland." Via these various images of the island of Formosa, he hopes to invite people to try to consider and observe Taiwan from different points of view. He wants to convey to society at large: "I've seen Taiwan! Have you?"
Corporate identity design requires both creativity and functionality. The photo shows the fruits of CI work that Lin did for Chunghwa Telecom. Two handsets-one colored and one left blank-are nestled together to convey the idea that when people use the phone to communicate they convey the meaning of their hearts and souls.