平靜安穩(Quietness and Trust)

“When I was creating this piece, ‘Quietness and Trust,’ what I had in mind was this: the path of life is not always a smooth, paved road. A lot of times as we walk this journey, we run into invisible roadblocks, sudden pressures, and environments that make us feel completely chaotic and anxious. But I also believe that right in the middle of all this restlessness, there is still a beam of light coming down from above, a light that can settle our hearts back into place.

Scripture says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.’

In this painting, I used a lot of heavy color blocks, mixed with crisscrossing black and golden lines, to describe the rough patches and hardships we encounter along the road of life. They aren’t arranged in neat little rows; instead, they cut through each other, tangle together, and collide… much like the problems we constantly face in our lives. Some are pressures from work, some are the constant pulling of relationships, some are responsibilities we just have to carry, and some are just that unspoken anxiety resting deep inside our hearts. The black lines make you feel the literal weight of these difficulties, while the golden lines show that even in the middle of hardship, there is still value, lessons to be learned, and the traces of being refined.

I didn’t want to paint life as a smooth, easy path, because real life just isn’t like that. Most of the time, we move forward in the middle of uncertainty. We look for direction inside the storms, and it’s only after getting hurt and completely exhausted that we slowly begin to understand what true stability means. So, the path in this painting looks a bit chaotic, a bit broken, and a bit rugged—but that is exactly the live scene of life that I wanted to capture.

And the most important part of this entire painting is that white light coming down from the top. This light didn’t grow out of the ground; it poured down from heaven. To me, it symbolizes a comfort and strength that transcends our environment. When there is a steady light source like this inside a person’s heart, even if the road outside is still uneven, and even if there are many rough patches under our feet, we can still hold onto a deep quietness within.

Quietness and trust don’t happen because our environment is completely problem-free, nor do they mean the road of life has been cleared out and made perfectly smooth for us. True quietness is being able to stand firm right in the middle of the storm. True trust is knowing, even when you are surrounded by chaos and constant shifting, that there is still a light guiding you forward.

This white light drops right into the center of the canvas and stretches all the way into the chaotic lines below. It doesn’t bypass the rough patches; it enters right into them. It doesn’t instantly take away all the difficulties, but it opens up a walkable path right in the middle of them. This is also what I wanted to say through this brushwork: sometimes we can’t choose what we run into on the road, but we can be lit up by a deeper light, so we won’t be swallowed by the dark.

When you look at this painting, I hope you feel a deep sense of comfort. The road you are walking right now might not be easy. There might be too many lines tangled together, making it hard to see where you’re going. But as long as that light is still there, and as long as there is hope in your heart, you will never truly lose your way. Quietness isn’t the absence of storms, and trust isn’t the absence of rough patches. Quietness and trust mean that in the very middle of the storms and rough patches, you are still held up by the light, and you are still able to keep moving forward.”