 have known Liu Wei for no more than a year. Before him, I had no friends who play with art, and therefore had the slightest idea of such people as “the artists”. I thought they were nothing but self-conceited and posturing loafers. But later I bumped into the art world and saw a lot of people coming and going, all having something to do with art. I then came to realize that artists are not the same. It doesn’t make any sense to say who is a real artist and who is not, but the thing is, any actual individual is much more fun than academic theories. And Liu Wei is one of them, who holds in himself such a strong sense of being that he distracts people’s eyes from all the other artists.
 Since Liu Wei held his individual exhibition “My Landscape” in Red Bridge Gallery, I came into more contact with him. Gradually, something about him began to linger in my mind, urging me to write it down, even in fragments and isolated words. His image flashed in front of me the moment I took up my pen. I hardly know where to start from, probably because there’s so much to write about. I will therefore only say something about his daily life which I happen to know. As to Liu Wei himself, who does not know him?
ONE
Once, while we were chatting, we got onto the subject of handwriting. Liu Wei said he couldn’t write well, because he couldn’t copy, not even from handwriting specimens. And he told us a story. One of his friends fell in love with one of his early works, on which two kids were sitting in front of a portrait of Chairman Mao. He liked it so much that he coaxed and pestered, begging Liu to paint something exactly like that for him. Liu gave in and copied from his former work. He tried very hard, and kept on making changes here and there, only to get something not even close. See, he couldn’t even copy himself, let alone others.
TWO
Liu Wei has a very charming way of speaking, always uttering with distinct articulation of each syllable. His musical Beijing accent makes  him look like an authentic Beijing storyteller. Or a chef, while displaying his excellent culinary skills, who smiles within himself on seeing the mouth-watering customers. When he speaks, he likes to lower his voice, slightly tossing his head and waving his arms, and concludes with something like, “ you would say that too, wouldn’t you?” Apparently pleased with himself. Then he laughs with his chin in the art, took a puff on his cigarette, and narrow his little eyes in the smoke, with a look of complete satisfaction.
From his way of speaking and painting, I’d say Liu has the delicacy and exquisiteness of the Southerners. He enjoys doing things in an unhurried way. He paints slowly, drinks slowly, and lives his life at a slow pace. He takes things easy, and everything turns out to be just perfect, no more, no less. On the other hand, however, Liu is quite a Northerner, casual, informal, which can be seen from the scribbles on his painting as well as that easy charm in his manners. He is content with his simple dress and living conditions, too. He seems to have an innate instinct to mix irrelevant things together in his own way. I remember Liu once giving a lecture on painting to students in Yunnan University. When he came to the many possibilities of painting techniques, he said if one happened to be painting at the riverside, it would be ok to pick up a handful of sand and mix it into the oil paints. It was just casual words, but we can learn from these words that for Liu there is no limit or restrictions in his painting.
 That boundlessness can be best observed from his works on paper. A piece of paper and a brush are the basic elements of typical Chinese paintings. The methods used may vary, but the principle is the same. Liu has his own thoughts, and have tried out all kinds of materials on paper, pencil, brush, crayon, pen, watercolor, wax. More possibilities can even be observed in his printmaking. With some careless scribbles, prints from the same printing plate may have fine distinction, which adds to them subtle interest and enjoyment. Such things have never been tried before by anyone else, but Liu is really enjoying himself with his experiments, as if he has none of the predecessors in mind. But later when I saw one of Wen Zhengming’s book in the restroom of his studio, I smiled a smile of understanding. In fact, he bears in mind each and every one of them.
THREE
Liu Wei will look into your eyes when he talks to you. And there in his eyes are numerous pairs of eyes.
FOUR
 Color has always been a primary concern to any sensitive artist. It is through color that we can read the artists and their artworks, even out own mind.
Among Liu’s latest works on paper, one is an abstract painting drawn by colored pencil. About color, Liu has his own opinion. He says,” Everybody can match up a bright color, but each color has its own visual effect, because bright color means different tings to different people. Paintings are meant for its beholders, who will watch them with their own cultural understanding. I can only say that there is a bright color within everybody. My paintings can show you how I read it. You have a bright color in your mind too. How do you read it? If one of my paintings can read the bright color in your mind, then it is a good work. As for me, I am aware of the diversified colors and mixed feelings within myself. With these whirling emotions, you can’t always read clearly. What I can do is to present them as they are. For example, some colors in my mind might be nostalgic and of unique significance to me. They come from traditional Chinese culture, which has on me a profound influence, and traditional things are difficult for one to detach himself from.”
FIVE
That day it was already midnight when we were on our way back home from a barbecue restaurant. Dwelling Buildings were veiled with  pitch darkness, trees lighted by a yellowish glare from the lofty street lamps. There were only two of us on the street, with our footsteps, and occasional barks of some dog. Liu Wei said,” How beautiful it is with the light pouring on the trees and the leaves shining! And the street, and the night. What a picture!”
SIX
It was still at that barbecue. Having eaten to their heart’s content, a group of people sat there chitchatting. The barbecue restaurant was owned by a Hui woman and her uncle. Liu knows them very well and he calls the man uncle too. When I went into the restaurant, Liu Wei was busy talking with the restaurant owner, with an iced beer in his hand. They were discussing raw material purchasing. Liu Wei recommended a shop to them, saying the meat there was of good quality and was at reasonable prices, and so on and so on. It was rather laughable for an artist to discuss such things with a restaurant owner, but it was funny, too. Liu Wei seemed quite an expert in this matter and he was talking with so serious a tone that one can’t help thinking, while amazed, that Liu is probably always so conscientious in many aspects of his daily life and that he can handle everything properly.
 SEVEN
Another time, at a Sichuan Food restaurant in Songzhuang, Liu Wei was intimately joking with the owner and clinking glasses with acquaintances around. After two drinks he began to talk shop. “We can see a lot from Picasso’s works, such as how he treats sex. He did a great job! Many people won’t do it, and I think it’s very sick of these people. Sex is a natural part of life. When I was young and aggressive I took sex as an art element too. But I stopped doing that several years ago, Because I can still have sex in my works. I have already enjoyed it during the process, and it’s meaningless to reappear it on paper. It will look so pale to be just an image. When you can’t have sex any more, on the other hand, you will begin to treasure those beautiful memories about it. With such a vivacious conception in your mind, the colors will be rich and the strokes oil be diversified. Your works oil appear wonderful, marvelous, and in many people’s eyes touching, no matter they are young or old. I will definitely do that again, when it is the right time. But I won’t do it now when I am still so vigorously living.”
What interests me most is not how Liu Wei regards the relationship between sex and eternity, but that he is so frank with his fragile self in the future. Growing old is meant to be a tragedy for someone who lives on his creativity and has achieved great results relying on that. A lot of once shining stars later committed suicide, either because they had exhausted their talents or because they could not  tolerate the fact of growing old. But Liu Wei is not like them. He has already, in a casual yet serious manner, mentioned some certainty in the future. As an old Chinese saying goes,” one should resign oneself to old age”, that is, instead of waiting for death, we should enjoy every stage of life and do what we should do for each period. That is a kind of natural ease and elegance, really hard to achieve. Thus flows out his insight and understanding of life, which made the noisy restaurant suddenly quiet. Everyone was listening to Liu Wei, who was speaking in a hoarse voice, as if they could touch the calm and tranquility of life. Liu Wei records his response to life in his paintings, no matter in a way of sex or creativity. His benevolence towards life will touch and save many sensitive hearts.
EIGHT
Instead of hiring an assistant, Liu Wei does the chores in the studio all by himself, which sounds unbelievable to many people. Later I had a chance to watch him doing printmaking there. He spread a print onto the wood board, face down, and applied glue equally to the back of the print with a brush. He then picked up a sheet of white paper and rolled it into a cylinder. He stuck one end of the paper onto the print, and unfolded the rest of it slowly, carefully brushing it onto the print with a dry brush. He thus added three to four layers of paper to the print to make it much thicker. Liu Wei did the job quite neatly and finished within no time, without any superfluous motion. That owes without saying to the fact that Liu is a professional. On the other hand, however, it’s quite clear that he had done that too often.
 NINE
Liu Wei’s courtyard is full of different kinds of plants, and scattered with some broken antiques from the Wei and Jin dynasties, which he has gathered through the years. Maybe deficiency is also a kind of beauty. I once passed by a prettily engraved rock lying on the ground in his courtyard. On the rock were two small figures in ancient costumes. I thought they were very interesting and paused to watch. Liu Wei paced up behind me and observed, quite casually, that the rock used to be a tomb door, and then walked away. For a moment I couldn’t utter a word, but then I felt quite at ease. Usually households dislike funeral objects at home, but Liu treats them just as ordinary things. As long as the staff has beauty within, it is worth having and appreciating. I was the pedantic one.
Another time, also in his courtyard, it has just rained in the morning. The cobbled road was shining, a snail was crawling onto the face of a stone sculpture, and rainwater was dripping down from the tree leaves. While we were taking a walk, Liu Wei pointed to a tree and said it was bought several years ago at a few dozen of yuan. He was saying, moved the branches apart, picked an orange red Chinese wolfberry and put it into his mouth. He also picked up a few for me. The wolf berries had been washed by the rain and glittered like crystal. I stared at them for a moment, thinking, how could one eat those things before they are given a good wash and sundried. But at the same time I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I took the berries reluctantly. But once they were in mouth, I was overwhelmed  by their fragrant and sweet taste. All my previous doubt was gone. I then came to realize that the lore and rules could do nothing but draw us apart from happiness.
TEN
Liu Wei is extremely self-confident, or even boastful. But those who know him won’t take that as something negative, first because he is indeed very outstanding, and second, his charisma makes his “boastfulness” so charming that you can’t help enjoy it with delight. Sometimes Liu Wei will ask something like, “am I being too self-conceited?” But then he will burst into a fit of violent laughter. He is not looking for any answers. He is just mocking at the worldly sham modesty.
Up to this point, my side of the story seems a bit unfinished, or quite enough, perhaps. To know more about Liu Wei, you’d better go to see his paintings, because art make what he is. At present Liu Wei is exhibiting his new series “A Piece of Paper, A Piece of Plywood” in Red Bridge Gallery. Just as the name suggests, most of the work exhibited this time were painted on the paper in 2009. One more thing, the name of the exhibition was decided by Liu himself. He first suggested “A Piece of Paper, A Piece of Board”. Then he sent me a message and added a character “儿”(Er) at the end of each phrase. Here, “Er” is an empty word that makes retroflex sound when combined with the character before it, giving a unique Old Beijing flavor to the name.
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