“志之难者不在胜人而在胜己”，在岁月的自我超越中，我经常在困惑与思索中跋涉。

　　艺术的生命靠精神来维持，人类精神的不朽力量在于创造，真正的艺术是情感、灵性和生命的结晶。

　　为时代写照、为高原传神，是我多年所追求的黄土高原粗犷、质朴、充满生命热情的人和大自然藏而不露的内在之美，极具表现性。它是我艺术生命之源，滋润着我“画必由心出”的创作宗旨。

　　艺术是永恒的。在艺术上要想有新的突破，就必须有放弃从旧作品中受惠的自信，而建立甘冒风险的另一种自信。从以心写心的观念写生，到以笔墨自主的观念造型；从笔墨依附于形象，到笔墨独具审美功能，有一个长期实践和认识的过程。中国画，笔愈简，境愈宽。“简”不仅是技法或者形式的“简”，更要从构思立意上力求凝炼、概括深远的意境和丰富的内涵。因此，“笔简意真”就成了我画焦墨人物的理论基石，成为我艺术创作轨迹的精神坐标。

　　焦墨人物画取秦汉雕刻之古朴，吸收画像砖平面之效果，强调雕塑感、整体感、力度感，使物象更加单纯与概括，“骨法用笔”得到加强，画面显得大气而有体量，给人以似版画，非版画；似铁画，非铁画；似拓片，非拓片的视觉冲击力。以之来揭示西部汉子浑朴、苦涩、耐劳的内心世界，可淋漓地表达心中洋溢的强烈感受。

　　焦墨人物画舍弃了水墨画中的墨韵变化，排除了墨分五彩的传统观念，惜水如金，将墨色层次浓缩到极致，用浓浓的重墨和焦墨勾勒铸画。充分利用焦墨团块形成强烈的墨白对比，以大块焦墨团块构成画面主体，再用铁铸似的线条穿插其间，造成凝重有力，慑人心魄的艺术效果。

　　焦墨人物画不追求华滋、精细和虚实变化，而重在以笔力取骨气，用笔重、涩、高强度地提按、搓锋、逆锋，引入金石之美，凝炼古拙，苍劲浑厚，如铸如刻，妙在有形与无形、有意与无意之间，其墨自笔出，自然洒泼，求其“书写性”和“写意性”，力求书画亲合，达到“书至画为高度，画至书为极则”的艺术境界，以实现笔墨的独立性和自身审美价值。

　　焦墨人物画还要靠“布白”展现节奏、疏通意气、焕发精神。大大小小“白色块”的妙造，不仅是形式的需要，也是画面精神的体现。因此，比线条还抽象的“白色块”，与焦墨团块和铁线银勾相济共生，亲合一体，营造“黑白为天下”的素净之美，再赋以朱色印款，形成黑、白、红三势，自有一番醒豁、空灵、深邃的写意神韵，把笔墨精神引向“笔简意真”的高层次境界。

　　焦墨画着色精妙，色可托墨墨更鲜；着色不当，打乱画面整体关系，就会冲淡焦墨人物画的张力，至此必须断然弃色守墨。有些色彩要向墨色靠扰，有些色彩则要和墨色形成对比，要“点色成金”，使画面醒目，墨色更加清新。

　　As it is said, "the difficulty in carrying out one’s will lies in overcoming his own self, but not otherwise." In the years of surpassing myself, very often I trudge in puzzlement and deep thought.

　　Art relies on spirit for its vitality, whereas the eternal might of man’s spirit comes from creation. The true art is the crystallization of feeling, intelligence and life.

　　It is my life-long goal to portray the times and convey the spirit of the highland. The rough, unaffected and vitalized character of men and women on the loess plateau as well as the hidden inner beauty of the Nature are worthy of expression, which, in truth, is the source of my art life, reinforcing the principle of my creation as "painting must come straight out of the heart".

　　Art is eternal. One has to give up the self-confidence that he can benefit from the old, and set up a new type of conviction in adventure, if he really wants to make breakthrough in his art. It is a long process of knowing and practicing, from sketch expressing one’s heart to creating images mainly by brushwork, and from brushwork relying on the image to its independent aesthetic effect. For Chinese painting, the simpler the brushwork is, the broader the connotation would be. Here, "simple" does not only mean the skill or form, but more importantly, it means that, from the very beginning of the approach and composition, one must try to condense and generalize the profound meaning and rich content. Therefore, "true meaning in simple brushwork" has become the theoretical base when I paint the burned ink figures, as well as the spiritual coordinate guiding the road of my art creation.

　　My burned ink figure painting is inspired by the simple and unsophisticated carvings in the Qin and Han Dynasties (221,B.C.~220,A.D.), and drawn in effect from the figure painting on brick plane; it emphasizes the sense of sculpture, completeness and strength, making the object even simpler and more generalized. When "bone-like brushwork" is strengthened, the picture looks grant and thick, leaving a very strong impression of engraved picture or iron picture or rubbing. Depicting the simple and honest, bitter and endurable inner world of men in the western part of China in such a way, we bring about a strong artistic appeal vividly and incisively.

　　The burned ink figure painting, while giving up the charm in various orms of ink and the traditional idea of "there are five different shades of colour in ink", reduces the layers of ink to the minimum and uses only the very thick and burned ink to outline the figure: It makes full use of the blocks of burned ink to create a strong contrast between black and white, giving the main subject in the picture big blocks of burned ink, linked with metal-like lines, thus a deep and forceful, heart-striking artistic effect is thus obtained.

　　Not to strive for resplendence, refinement and the variety of emptiness and solidity, the burned ink figure painting lays stress on the description of integrity of the character by the strength of the brush, that is, heavily and unsmoothly use the brush, forcefully raise and press the brush, move the brush reversely and conversely, resulting in the beauty of seal-carving, and the bold and hard casting-like looks, the wonder of which lies in between form and formlessness, intention and intentionlessness. The ink comes from the brush naturally and freely. By making calligraphy and painting into one, we reach the artistic realm of "painting being the highest level of calligraphy, while calligraphy being the ultimate attainment of painting", and win the independence and aesthetic value of the brush and ink.

　　The burned ink figure painting shows its rhythm, dredges its spirit and brings forth its vigour through the arrangement of "white": the clever leaving of the blank space is not only the necessity of the form, but also the embodiment of the spirit of the picture itself. Therefore, the white-blank space, which is more abstract than lines, together with burned ink blocks and metal-like lines, creates a quiet and plain beauty of "ink and white prevailing over the world". Once the red seal is added to the picture, the three colours of black, white and red produce a clear, void and profound charm, reaching a high level of true feeling by simple brushwork.

　　The burned ink figure painting, if exquisite colours are applied, could make the ink brighter by contrast; but if the colours are used improperly, they will confuse the whole relation and weaken the tension of the picture, in that case the colours must be given up and only ink should remain. In order to obtain an eye-catching picture done in fresh ink, sometimes the colours should be as close to the ink as possible, sometimes they should be in its contrast.