世界本來就是活的。 The world has always been alive.

我的創作觀是「視與不視之間」。 My way of working is what I call Between Seeing and Imagining.

「視」是眼睛所見。隨處可見的斑駁牆面、老樹枝幹、一張風景照片，都會讓我聯想到各式各樣「類精靈」的臉。牠們有時成群結隊地對話，有時堆疊在一起玩樂，臉上帶著微笑，充滿歡樂。凝視著這些翩翩起舞的類精靈時，我彷彿看見內心的自我，也隨之起舞，開心無比。 Seeing is what the eye takes in. A mottled wall, the branches of an old tree, a photograph of a landscape—things anyone passes in a day—set off an association in me, and I find in them the faces of all kinds of sprite-like beings. Sometimes they gather in groups and talk; sometimes they pile up together, playing. They wear smiles, full of joy. When I watch them dancing, I seem to see my inner self step in and dance with them.

「不視」是心眼所見，想像無限。天馬行空的夢境與想像，如放映機中的畫面，一幕幕浮現在眼前，成為我創作的泉源。即使是由想像構成、現實中未曾見過的形象，也可以先用線稿描繪，再用陶土捏塑成形，彷彿各種不同造形的時空旅者群聚，也成為幻想中無限的「自我」。 Imagining is what the mind’s eye sees, where imagination has no limit. Dreams and inventions run before me like images in a projector, frame after frame, and they are the wellspring of my work. Even a figure made purely of imagination, never seen in the world, can first be drawn in line and then shaped in clay—a crowd of time travellers in every imaginable form, each another endless version of the self.

「視與不視之間」，是眼睛所見與內心所想融合之後的發酵。看見有感覺的圖像或情境，再加上延伸的想像，經過重新排列、組合與再製，形成我的「視覺聯想」。隨著時間推移，想法如水波般不斷改變，形成許多分歧，也形成多變而獨一無二的作品。 Between seeing and imagining is what ferments once the two fuse. An image or a situation moves me; I extend it with imagination, then rearrange, recombine, and remake it—this is my visual association. And because thought keeps changing like water, never settling, the same beginning branches out, and the works that come of it are varied and never twice the same.

創作時，我讓思想放空，運用直覺，捕捉瞬間的靈感。在較早的創作中，我常把周遭出現的類臉譜圖案擷取成插畫，再用陶土捏塑成形，將插畫立體化為陶藝作品。陶土是我最主要的創作語言，因為它的可塑性強，可以迅速表現出生靈的樣貌。經過彩繪與高溫窯燒之後，常有意外的驚喜出現。 When I work, I empty my thinking, rely on intuition, and catch the inspiration of an instant. In my earlier work I often took the face-like patterns I found around me, drew them as illustrations, then shaped them in clay—turning illustration into three dimensions. Clay is my main language, because its plasticity can give a living form its appearance quickly. After painting and a high-temperature firing, the kiln often holds a surprise.

隨著創作持續，我也逐漸不預設陶塑的形體：讓雙手先行，形體後現。我刻意讓作品沒有唯一的正面，邀請觀者繞行一圈，在轉換角度時遇見不同的生命。 As the work went on, I gradually stopped deciding the form in advance: the hands go first, the form arrives after. I deliberately give a piece no single front, so that a viewer has to walk around it and meet a different life at every angle.

我相信世界本來就是活的。我所說的「活」，是世界始終蘊含著尚未被看見的生命生成可能。那些紋理、痕跡與形體，經由觀看、想像與雙手的工作，逐漸顯現出生命。我不是記錄它，也不是創造它；而我，也是這個生成過程的參與者。 I believe the world has always been alive. By “alive” I mean that the world holds, always, possibilities for life that have not yet been seen. Those textures, traces, and forms come into life gradually through seeing, imagination, and the work of the hands. I do not record it, and I do not create it; I too am a participant in that becoming.