“During quite a long period, I have persisted in building a kind of fictitious and fully dramatic pictures. First, I draw a building like a stage setting, I do not have a comprehensive script, I am only obsessed with that kind of dramatic atmosphere. Then I try to insert figures into the picture, find out their characters and give them certain expressions. This is an exciting process …… When I draw a figure, a lot of images come to my mind, so that what I paint is not about any particular person. Therefore, the figure will look exaggerating, but that is precisely what I want. At the end of the day, a painting cannot tell a story in the same way as a drama does, I merely try to provide a dramatic atmosphere, for tempting the audience into a search for the characters of the figures.”

                                                                                                Shi Lei