LEAP OF FAITH － OIL ON CANVAS 11" x 14"

该画取材于DALLAS MORNING NEWS上的一幅照片。照片的标题是Escape claws: No squirrel for this bobcat's breakfast. 照片下的注解是：Despite the long leap, a bobcat missed getting a squirrel breakfast Friday morning on ...a creek that runs behind the street ... where bobcats are known to lurk.(bobcat是一种野生猫，比家猫体积大一倍左右）。我当时看报纸一下就被这张照片吸引住了。这个猫的动作，姿态，神情，恰恰体现了AMERICAN EXPRESSION：LEAP OF FAITH。虽然它没成功，但我觉得，这就叫 LEAP OF FAITH！正象Elton John's Circle of Life的歌词：From the day we arrive on the planet，... ,Some say eat or be eaten, Some say live and let live, ... , In the circle of life, It's the wheel of fortune, It's the leap of faith, It's the band of hope, Till we find our place ...

该照片是早上４点多照的，所以前景和背景黑呼呼的，而且也没什么背景。我不喜欢。于是，我决定把这支猫和松鼠放到白天，阳光灿烂的背景里。

该画的其余部分取自梵高的一幅油画：Pine Trees and Dandelions in the Asylum Garden. １８９０年４月，梵高在他最长一次BREAKDOWN恢复后，画了这幅"magnificent landscape, taken once again from the asylum garden - or park, as he had come to call it." 他给他弟弟写的信中描述这幅画："I have done two canvases of the fresh grass in the park, one of which is extremely simple ... The trunk of a pine violet-pink and then the grass with white flowers and dandelions, a little rose tree and other trunks in the back ground right at the top of the canvas". 梵高认为他画的此画＂EXTREMELY SIMPLE＂，我正好在此画上加两个 SUBJECTS，使画面复杂点。

我喜欢梵高强劲有力的PINE TREE TRUNKS，春意盎然的DANDELIONS，加上动态的SQUIRREL和BOBCAT，（因为SQUIRREL的速度比BOBCAT快，所以它的形象模糊。）我觉得这两者合在一起很和谐，表现了一种生机，一种力量。我画此画涂改的少了，花的时间也比上一幅少。我似乎有了一点儿就轻驾熟的感觉。

古今中外，多少大师试图解释什么是艺术。在众多的名言里，我最喜欢梵高的一段话：Art should be "something peaceful and agreeable, realistic and painted from the heart, something brief, synthetic, simplified and concentrated, full of serenity, and pure harmony, consoling as music." - 我希望按他说的去追求艺术。