To most people, the act of “seeing” seems simple enough. However, to be able to “see” things genuinely is not as easy as it seems.

Most people see only to grasp the “concept” of the object; hence the innate character or individuality of the person, the object, or nature being seen is simplified or alienated. Worse of all, once recognition through conceptualization is achieved, visual experience does not seem to exist any more, and at its best is merely functional.

We forget the richness of the act of “seeing” itself; its complexity can be viewed generally in two ways, the first being related to “time”. The act of “seeing” is a comprehensive as well as an immediate contact between the viewer and the viewed object. On the other hand, it has different meanings for the viewer and the object. The subjective viewer’s perception, sense, sensibility, consciousness, and subconsciousness, all the expressible and inexpressible elements affect his/her visual experience. It may even carry the mark of one’s past, present, future, or culture background. As to the object being seen, as mentioned above, each bears its own innate character and individuality. Therefore, if we cannot break away from our self-imposed restrictions, discard all preconceived concepts and open our “mind’s eye” to allow our visual potentialities to play directly and freely, then what we see will only be the repeated concepts in our brains while the genuine visual experience may not have happened at all.

To sum up, I intend to get rid of all preconceived “concepts” when I paint. I see my objects with an open mind in order to release the multi-level visual experience. In other words, since the visual experience is thus complicated, as we depict the existing space in painting, the so-called “two-dimensional”, “three-dimensional”, “realistic” and “abstract” approaches ought to be all mixed. They should complement, encounter, interact with, and co-exist with one another. The visual experience can be flat as well as deep, abstract as well as real. The characteristics of its co-existentiality cannot be classified or analyzed conceptually.

When commenting on “free perception” in his book 《Contour of My Philosophy》, Tse-hou Lee writes “It is not rational analysis, nor is it formal interpretation; it is not sensual experience either, nor is it spontaneity. It seems similar to what Kant calls intellectual intuition, intellectual and intuitive. However, it is not only possessed by god. It seems to be beyond analysis; yet it has its root in life and practice. It is often poetically vague, inexpressibly multi-meaningful. Nevertheless, it possesses the power enable us to break away from the existing thinking mode and experience. “Hopefully, to represent by means of this total approach, I may be able to explore further the essence of visual experience.