A Colorful Look at Life

A Colorful Look at Life 

        Jimmy Liao builds a colorful fantasy world through his paintings and poems. Having known the deepest desperation, Jimmy Liao draws as he lives and feels as the man in his pictures. Without straining to create high amounts of detail for effect, he conveys the world he feels through colorful pictures. The stories he tells easily evoke feelings of quietness, loneliness and melancholia. He often uses watercolor and black outline, so the pictures he draws are simple and seems to be drawn by children. In fact, Jimmy Liao just wants to convey his ideas understandably for viewers and to reveal some phenomena in current society. That is the reason why his work can be appreciated by children, teenagers and adults, just as newspaper reporter Miranda Yeung writes,

    The magic Jimmy Liao Fu-pin's stories creates is varied. Children are amused by the colorful pictures that   often feature adorable animals. Teenagers grasp the bitter-sweet feeling of leaving childhood and entering adulthood. Adults catch the heart-tugging loneliness and anxieties of the urban life. [1]

Jimmy Liao also writes poems that accompany his pictures, hence, his work becomes a new form of picture book. The artworks chosen from his most famous picture book, The Starry Starry Night, tells stories of a pure precious friendship between a boy and a girl, which has some disappointments in it, and Jimmy depicted teenagers’ delicate complex and real emotions to viewers.

        Jimmy Liao, a Taiwanese illustrator, was born on November 15^th, 1958. The first name Jimmy is his English first name which becomes his (phonetic) Chinese pen name.[2] Although artists are formally referred to by the last name in art historical writing, I will refer to him as Jimmy because his first name is famous. Jimmy’s own life is colorful but full of imperfection. He was not a good student and decided to study art just before his last year in high school. [3] Jimmy graduated from the design department of a university in Taiwan in 1982, and he went to an advertising company. After more than ten years of design, he was very talented in the advertisement industry. Gradually, Jimmy felt that designing always had to follow other people's ideas, and he couldn't do what he really wanted to do. His original ideas were always changed by the customers, but he could not have complaints. At this time, working during the day was getting less interesting than painting at home at night. Finally, he quit his job and embarked on the road of free creation at the end of 1994. Unfortunately, he was told that he had cancer in 1995.[4] A dark period began then, however, it was the darkness which gave him a chance to think about life. He spent over a year in the hospital and paused his drawing for that year. During his treatment, he spent lots of time watching different things around him which gave him the chance to discover normal things in more detail and feel more subtle emotions. Then he put his thoughts into his artworks. After this time of his life, the man in his pictures became smaller and smaller, without expression, and scenes in his pictures were full of sadness and desperation. [5] He began to draw as if he lives in the fantasy world he created. Life changed a lot when his daughter was born in 1997. He used to say that, 

    I merely drew the pictures in my heart. It was like a dream and a prophecy; it was like a scene that I yearned to appear during every quiet morning; it may represent what I was hankering for in my life during that period; it may be a fragment of my childhood memories; it may be my future imaginings about my infant daughter.[6]

His heart was warmed a lot, hence, he created more emotional stories.

        The Starry Starry Night, released in 2009, was inspired by a piece of news. Two high school students from the south of Taiwan ran away from home. Their parents sought compensation from each other after finding their children. Their children, however, were happy and just enjoyed each other’s company. Jimmy came up with ideas not only because of their courage, but also his dream of being a rebellious child. In this book, he builds a story about escaping, and pure emotions between a boy and a girl, and a little rebellion.[7] This time, also the first time for Jimmy, he wanted to make a book for teenagers. Finally, The Starry Starry Night became a magical story of sorrow, loneliness, courage and love. It is about a girl, who used to live with her grandparents in the mountains and moves to the city to live with her parents. She finds the city cold and full of distance, and her parents are always arguing. She is alone all the time, while another boy who is new from her class is alone too. One day, she saw the boy being bullied by someone and gave him a hand. After that day, they became friends and accompany each other every day.  No matter what others think about them, they just enjoy the moments together. They finally run away from home to enjoy themselves in nature to embrace the fresh air and the short-lived freedom.

        Figure 1 and Figure 2 are depicting the two teenagers’ normal lives. For adults, teenagers seem to be happier because the only thing they need to do is focus on their studying rather than dealing with different complicated problems in society. However, the relationship problems with peers, parents and themselves are a vital part of one’s growing up experience. Through these pictures, viewers can see the teens’ dilemmas more clearly. The girl is waiting for bus alone, and the boy walks home alone. The girl’s parents do not talk with her much, and the boy’s parents usually are not with him. No matter the withered rabbit-shaped tree and the lonely stairs in Figure 1, or the black wall, the newspaper in front of the girl’s dad and the empty corner in Figure 2, all these details create the feeling of loneliness. Jimmy utilizes these moments in life to shorten the distance between viewers and the two students because the same scene may have happened in many people’s adolescence. That lonely life could be invoked in many viewers’ minds. Bold colors, which are often applied for creating happy scenes, are not inappropriate for these lonely scenes but contrast with the loneliness of the protagonists. People in these paintings do not have any expressions. Jimmy expresses the panic and ignorance deep inside the teenagers’ minds by building these bright colored silent plots.

        Figure 3 is chosen from the part of the book where the girl and the boy have become good friends with only each other. They are inseparable every day so that the gossip of them spreads quickly in school, but they do not care at all and still share the happiness of companionship. In this picture, the boy and the girl smile, revealing that they are happy with each other’s companionship and enjoy every second they are together. The tree behind them is shaped like a rabbit which is the iconic element in Jimmy’s drawings.           On the one hand, it stands for the strange views from others about the protagonists. Their eyes are looking at their bus rather than the special tree, which means they do not care others’ views. On the other hand, the rabbit-shaped tree which is becoming lush compared to the tree in Figure 1, may be the symbol that they make each other’s routine lives more beautiful and colorful. 

            

        Figure 4 is chosen from the section where the two teenagers finally realize their plan of escaping.  It is also the most important section about courage in this book, because the author wanted to use this story to cheer up those teenagers who have problems to deal with and are panicking about their life. In Figure 4, the boy and the girl lie on a big stone in water. The central figures are small in the picture and are placed in the left side, while the stones and the water take up much space. The painting proportion is good for creating the immersive feeling of encountering nature. The greenish blue, grass green, warm grey and white color form a romantic color scheme in the picture, suggesting the relaxing surroundings. Greenish blue depicts the water full of vitality. Green inlays in the blue water, reflecting the lush forests in both sides, which also enriches the picture as well as enhances the feeling of nature. The brushstrokes show the dynamic movement of waterflow cleverly. Jimmy added small flowers to the last layer, pushing the feeling of romance to the peak. Viewers can almost breathe the fresh air, hear the sound of water passing by, smell the flowers’ aroma and the feel the breeze when appreciating this image.

        Because Jimmy’s creative process includes an arrangement and combination of his large number of works, his pictures can be separated from the book and still be appreciated. In Figure 5, the boy and the girl post like diving into water, and the picture is full of shiny stars surround them. Figure 5 can be interpreted in two ways. The first is that the starry sky acts like a pool of water, and Jimmy uses the action of diving into the water to suggest the girl and the boy traveling under the stars. They leave all the unhappy things behind and jump into the water. The other interpretation is that they are diving into the water reflecting the stars in the sky, which seems like they are jumping into a river of stars. The diving action means they took off all their problems, and is the biggest portion of the picture, which shows the joy of that moment more directly. This book is unforgettable not only because it was influenced by Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night (1889), but also because the stars are drawn in an exaggerated way. All the stars are bigger and shinier than normal stars. Jimmy used radial forms to illustrate the shiny stars.  Dark blue and gold yellow help the effect of a silent and bright starry night. Just as the poems in this book states, “When looking up at the starry sky, the world is getting so big.”[8] During the beautiful quiet night, all the bad memories can be erased, and when the protagonists are met with some dilemmas in the future, they will still remember this night and get strength from it. Through this picture, the painter wants viewers to access to the feeling of the ease of embracing nature and the short-lived freedom from trouble, which also is Jimmy’s purpose from the beginning. Jimmy wants to show that people always are wrapped up in the trouble in front of them, however, they can be encouraged to move past it if they look further.[9] It is kind of a relaxation for viewers too, because that comfortable and dreamlike scene allows viewers to imagine they are the protagonists traveling in the nature. 

            

        These bright colored and immersive pictures are telling stories that many people may be involved with and can perhaps recall some memories from.  Jimmy is a strong storyteller who encourages viewers to be stand-ins for the protagonists who wander in the stories. There are four characteristics that Jimmy uses to bring viewers a colorful look at life. First and foremost, Jimmy’s painting style is essential for him to convey his ideas. Jimmy adopts a child’s thinking mode to communicate with viewers as simply as possible, which is the reason his artworks are similar to children’s paintings. The most significant characteristics of his painting is the striking bold watercolor and the simple figures. Jimmy does not like to mix colors precisely other than to draw directly and let the color change during the painting processes.[10] Colorful pictures are better for depicting stories in a milder and warmer way. Relatively bright colors can still illustrate the melancholic environment in the picture, rather than just being used to create a warm and happy scene. Take red as an example. Jimmy often uses red to express plots that are nervous and full of contradictions, because red has a power of dragging viewers towards the picture and amplifying the emotions of that atmosphere. And, the bright colors are good at keeping the scenes in viewers’ minds, just like the lush tree in Figure 3 which is impressive for its light green color. The simple figures help viewers memorize the pictures too. As his works spread to more countries and to people from all ages, Jimmy eliminates the racial differences as much as possible when he is creating the figures. Hence, his stories can be easily kept in minds for people comes from different background.

        In addition, the image design is interesting for viewers to get information from Jimmy’s works. Jimmy loves the poem of Wislawa Szymborska, which says, “Such certainty is beautiful, but uncertainty is more beautiful still.”[11] So, he loves being inspired by sudden ideas and inspiring people through his works. He usually uses exaggerated figures to construct spaces for imaginations, such as surprisingly large animals that represent others’ views in Figure 3, the lonely scenes and sometimes magic creatures. In these surrealist illustrations, he creates dreamy and fictional scenes which immerse people in them. People know the exaggerated figures are not real while they will imagine that magical scene, which creates more thoughts through the picture. Reading Jimmy’s book is a tour of excavation as well, and viewers always find something new when reading his book again and again, because he hides many things in his paintings. According to a quote in A History of Book Illustration, one of the charms of illustration is to create an imagination for viewers, so although it is unnecessary in people’s lives, but it has the power to bring people endless fun.[12] Another distinguishing feature is his artworks are compiled as picture books which is picture accompanied with poems. The words make the pictures’ meaning more simple or deeper for viewers, and in return, the picture can revoke more memories with words. In this way, the works are colorful not only in color palette but also the media of information.

        Besides, Jimmy’s own experience contributes to his creation. He, as a man who is full of innocence inside, still has the power of conveying the beautiful surprises in life to everyone after going through the deepest desperation. Owing to the illness, it is inevitable that his works all have a touch of sadness and are rarely happy ended. A lot of deep thoughts Jimmy got formed in his treatment, and these thoughts involving loneliness. When facing with death, the weakness forces him to feel the strong loneliness. When struggling with creation, lonely feeling is what he must be used to endure. As a scheme of his life, the touch of sadness in life becomes his signature theme to infect viewers.

        Last but not least, all stories in Jimmy’s works are clear and they are close to individuals. As above, his work is a mirror of real life, and people who are confused about themselves can be cheered up by his protagonists. Jimmy uses his own way to describe a colorful world and also suggest his views in this broad, sometimes a sinister world, or hint at loneliness. To be frank, life is colorful but not a fairy tale. In Jimmy’s words, no matter how he immerses himself in painting, he still needs to deal with the problems in real life. Life includes many uncertainties which is unexpected sometimes, and we do not sure whether it is bad or not. Just as what Jimmy wanted to convey to teenagers in The Starry Starry Night, viewers can take a colorful look at life and understand that it is not difficult to come across the dilemma in front of them. 

        Briefly speaking, colorful illustration is always used to depict happy and warm story, but Jimmy uses the bold color to build a world. It is a little sad but real, revealing the imperfect life in a mild way and instilling a positive and optimistic blood for us. In the colorful look at life, we can see the similarities between the protagonists and us. The same panic, the same loneliness and maybe the same experience are expressed in that magical world. It is a pleasure to get a Jimmy’s picture book and get lost in it. He uses multiple colors and interesting compilation to help viewers get release, childlike paintings and words to help viewers understand, and the clear beautiful stories to help viewers encourage themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Miranda Yeung, Taking a colorful look at life, April 3, 2008, accessed October 25, 2019, 

https://www.scmp.com/article/632403/taking-colourful-look-life    

 

Yingyan Wu, Jimmy’s Confession: How do I become Jimmy, August 5, 2014, accessed 

November 7, 2019, https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1259953

Feng’s Talk, Feng's Talk with Jimmy, November 29, 2017, accessed in November 10, 2019, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryhoYAykgyM&t=651s

dPICTUS, Jimmy Liao Part I, December 8, 2015, accessed October 25, 2019,

https://blog.picturebookmakers.com/post/134783021716/jimmy-liao-part-1

dPICTUS, Jimmy Liao Part II, December 15, 2015, accessed October 25, 2019,

https://blog.picturebookmakers.com/post/135244381846/jimmy-liao-part-2

Jimmy, The Starry Starry Night, October, 2009, accessed in November 10, 2019

Greenrr, 2009 Kaijuanhaoshu Award- Best Teenager Book, 1:00, January 15, 2010, accessed 

in November 10, 2019, https://youtu.be/jR_Zho93NAE

 

David Bland, A History of Book Illustration, 1969, accessed in November 10, 2019, 

Introduction, page 19

Jimmy, The Starry Starry Night, February, 2012, accessed in November 10, 2019

Wislawa Szymborska, Love at First Sight, accessed in November 11, 2019, 

https://poets.org/poem/love-first-sight 

Eslite, Eslite Scope, November 1, 2018, accessed in November 10, 2019, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuhNxgfAekk&t=207s

 

Huashi Figure, How Many “Jimmy” are between You and Freedom, April 7^th, 2018, accessed 

October 25, 2019,

http://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1597071798854614177&wfr=spider&for=pc

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

 

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[1] Miranda Yeung, Taking a colorful look at life, April 3, 2008, accessed October 25, 2019, https://www.scmp.com/article/632403/taking-colourful-look-life    

 

^[2] Yingyan Wu, Jimmy’s Confession: How do I become Jimmy, August 5, 2014, accessed November 7, 2019, https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1259953

[3] Yingyan Wu

 

[4] Huashi Figure, How Many “Jimmy” are between You and Freedom, April 7^th, 2018, accessed October 25, 2019, http://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1597071798854614177&wfr=spider&for=pc

 

[5] Yingyan Wu

 

[6] dPICTUS, Jimmy Liao Part I, December 8, 2015, accessed October 25, 2019, https://blog.picturebookmakers.com/post/134783021716/jimmy-liao-part-1

[7] dPICTUS, Jimmy Liao Part II, December 15, 2015, accessed October 25, 2019,

https://blog.picturebookmakers.com/post/135244381846/jimmy-liao-part-2

[8] Jimmy, The Starry Starry Night, October, 2009, accessed in November 10, 2019

 

[9] Greenrr, 2009 Kaijuanhaoshu Award- Best Teenager Book, 1:00, January 15, 2010, accessed in November 10, 2019, https://youtu.be/jR_Zho93NAE

 

[10] Eslite, Eslite Scope, November 1, 2018, accessed in November 10, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuhNxgfAekk&t=207s

[11] Wislawa Szymborska, Love at First Sight, accessed in November 11, 2019, https://poets.org/poem/love-first-sight

 

[12] David Bland, A History of Book Illustration, 1969, accessed in November 10, 2019, Introduction, page 19