ILLUSTRATED:
The Cosmorama Pictorial, no. 291, 1980, color illustrated, cover

Shiy De-jinn mainly employs the use ofdarker tones as base for his paintings.Moreover, his knowledge of the nature ofcolors and its extension has reached thepeak of allowing application interface bycombining the advantages of ink paintingsand homogene i ty tha t wa t e r colorpaints hold thus reaching an even moresatisfactory standard. Among these works,the main color schemes are usually eitherdark grey or dark blue and through hisrumination of colors, it never fails to bringforth a clear breeze of homesickness. InShiy De-jinn's composition career, watercolor painting works once faded behindthe scene for a period of time and it wasnot until the 60's that his water colorworks gradually appeared. This periodof stagnation was not in the least forma wastage but as mentioned previously,it was a period where he explored anddigested the tricks of employing colorsand once again reconciling with thetouch of wetness amongst wetnessfound in water color painting. This isindeed a very huge contribution to thetransition of Chinese painting towards thecontemporary.

Shiy De-jinn is particularly adamantabout not sel f repeat ing and in theOriental arts scene, this is an extremelyWesternized idea. To be honest, the fouryears of living experience in Europe hasindeed been playing a great factor in thecontinuity of lifestyle and direction in theartist's career and this is could be linkeddirectly to the Western artistic spirit andmodernism. Interestingly, this experiencehowever led him to use native Taiwan asa theme for his compositions; whereasthe period of stay in Europe saw himplacing his focus on the skill and masteryof lines of which is evidently so in theperiod of composing sketches. And asthe man who is unwilling to self repeatsays, Creativity is a determination whichshould be cultivated from young. Whatothers have done, I shall not do. Not onlyshall I not repeat after others, I shall alsonot repeat myself. Should life be full ofrepetition, then it will be a wastage of life...I will rather be a revolutionary artistwho fails then be one who wags its tailafter reputation....... Man is a creaturefull of creativity, thus he should be moreimportant than any system or sects ofthoughts and stress the importance ofindividuality. To the Chinese who focusesa lot on communal lifestyle, this is indeedan unconventional and groundbreakingthought. Shiy De-jinn's determinedcharacter has added much revolutionarycolors to art composition. In a bid to seeka breakthrough in perspectives, the artistwillingly uses himself as an experiment,constantly seeking creativity and this isindeed the true artistic spirit. To drawwhat we are familiar and passionateabout and draw what others do not dareto, this is done, so that we do not seek tojust draw a painting beautifully but at thesame time, we will draw a painting whichis one with an open road ahead. Being adown to earth man with a realistic attitudetowards life Shiy De-jinn is indeed onewho leaves others in awe. His manypieces of works records the memorabletimes in Taiwan or we could also saythat it recorded its previously beautifultimes. Be it Oriental or Western, time hastold us one thing, and it is the best artshould always depict of the things we arefamiliar with. Shiy De-jinn is thus thebest example of this.