虛實之間(Reflections of Reality)

“Hello, friends. Welcome. Let’s gather in front of this piece that always makes people stop in their tracks and, honestly, start counting. This is titled ‘Reflections of Reality’

When you first glance at this canvas, your brain might subconsciously activate a fun little mission: Just how many fish are there in this painting?

Let’s count them together. Right in the center, there is a plump, orange-and-red koi swimming toward the left. Below it is a dark, mottled Prussian carp with a speckled gloss, and right beneath that one, the silhouettes of two reddish-white fish cross paths. Over on the left, two bright orange goldfish seem to be poking their heads out. In the middle, a platinum goldfish drifts by with a long, elegant tail. And along the top and right borders, several more faint, shimmering fish are floating around… If you do a quick count, there are easily over ten fish shadows moving across the canvas.

But here is where the fun question comes in: Which ones are real, and which ones are illusions?

This is exactly the visual game that fascinated me most and that I deliberately created while painting this piece. Look closely. I used fine white lines to sketch out crisscrossing straight lines and refracting starlight across the canvas—those are actually the glass corners and mirror reflections of an aquarium.

Because of these reflective mirrors, many of the swimming figures you see are actually just ‘reflections’ and ‘illusions’ thrown off by the one real fish. In this painting, truth and falsehood, the original body and its reflection, have completely melted together into this shimmering ocean of greens and dark tones.

So, out of all these true and false fish silhouettes, which ones are truly special?

Living in the real world every day, we often assume that the fame and wealth we can grab onto, the material things we can see, or the labels others place on us are the absolute ‘reality.’ But sometimes, these things are just like the glare on an aquarium glass. The moment the environment shifts or the light turns, they vanish without a trace. On the contrary, those things that seem unreal, invisible, and untouchable—like our inner beliefs, that sudden flutter for our hometown, or the craving for freedom deep in our souls—are often the very things guiding us from the dark, becoming the most solid reality of our lives.

Therefore, the reality and illusion of life are never judged by the naked eye or the hands. It’s something you feel with your ‘heart.’

‘ Reflections of Reality ‘ is a visual poem I created for the modern soul. I don’t need you to accurately count how many real or fake fish there are. I’d much rather you just enjoy the beauty of truth and illusion intertwining.

As you stare into this piece, I hope you can feel a sense of peaceful release and quietness within these swimming lights and shadows—the kind of peace that comes from seeing through illusions. On this journey of life, where truth and falsehood are hard to tell apart and reality and illusion blur together, may we all possess a pair of clear eyes and a grounded heart. Let’s not be blinded by the glare on the surface. Between the real and the unreal, may you swim out your own most beautiful posture, completely at ease.”