Potatoes

Potatoes: Wu Yanxi’s arts
Duration:2001.4.6–4.20
About my little potato people

When I was a child I thought, stubbornly and foolishly, that people must have discovered potatoes earlier than rice since the potatoes were so close to the earth. Before people discovered them, they must be sleeping inside the warm soil, just like a baby in the bosom of the mother peacefully, quietly and cozily. When people discovered them and dug them out, they looked so plump, squat, simple and still had the fragrance of the soil, that people could not help loving them. After tasting, people felt nice and were not able to leave them anymore.

I love eating potatoes, fried potato, baked, steamed, all dishes related with the potatoes, I even thought of making a colorful and delicious potato banquet. Oh, my mouth would slobber at the thought of potatoes. But with my great intensive love of potatoes, all these could not meet and satisfy my affection. I have to draw and color them with heart and soul, let them to be lively and vivacious, thus my little potato people were come into being.

In my paintings, the little potato people are freely living with nature, they are accepting the sunshine and the moisture together with the little flowers, grasses, birds and animals. They are happily growing up together, no struggle, no gulf. They are playing and sporting together, enjoying the freedom and right granted by their life. Harmonious and tranquility are the melody of the world.