Lines. Space. Tao.

Art is to seeing as music is to listening. It connects the inside of the viewer to the outer world and vice versa. A work of art is neither the consequence nor the result; it is only a door to the Way.

In the process of applying myself as an artist, the Tao Te Ching and parables of Chuang Tzu have influenced me, providing food for thought, visions of enlightenment in life; the awareness of the art of artlessness, the usefulness of uselessness, the joy of wandering, spontaneity, and the insignificance of the difference between big and little. The Tao Te Ching offers the Way as a guide for life and it propounds nonaction as a means to achieve one's higher purpose in the workaday world. And from Chuang Tzu I learned the need for transcendence and the freedom of the individual from worldly concerns.

For the full development of oneself, one needs to express one's innate abilities and integrity, which is the manifestation in the individual of the universal Way or Tao. Integrity is the cultivation of complete harmony. The relationship between Art and me is not one of the ruler and subject; but simply friends joined through integrity.

We rarely go someplace or come back from someplace without a special reason, or purpose. Often, we regard going someplace without a purpose as a waste of time. In fact, this kind of wandering can be something important. If we go someplace to do something with worldly concerns, it is simply another daily chore. Strolling without an active intention, I try to relax as I let my mind wander, let my senses communicate within, and rid myself of the machinations of the mind, especially in the act of painting. Just like fish forget themselves in rivers and lakes, I forget myself in the art of the Way.

Each artwork is a catechism reflecting Zen experience. To learn about Zen is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself means to abandon one's ego. Forgetting about one's ego means enlightenment, freedom and transcendence. In other words, Zen is not something that one can acquire by trying hard. While in the beginning one must work on it; in the end that effort becomes an obstacle. Working hard cannot be a voluntary life, but a forced discipline, and therefore restriction. The effort originally comes from one's ego, and that has to be discarded. What has to be understood, however, is that one will reach the stage of effortlessness only after applying maximum effort. It is like floating freely in water, which is only possible, after one has learned how to swim.

Each artwork focuses on the freedom of the individual. Its intention is to show exaltation, tension, and transcendence. Art can come from the restraint of emotions, creating fine aesthetics. In this form of art, I pursue the beauty of restraint and simplicity. Through simplicity, I make not only a personal but also a universal and social statement. The purification of a society is only possible by the purification of each individual in that society. Thus, it is the artist's job to enhance the meaning of life by bringing all the reality in everyday life to a level of enlightenment.

In simplicity, in the act of seeing and being seen, and in the smile of enlightenment, resides our peace of mind. My works represent these ideas and I would like to share them with you.

Jae H. Hahn
Los Angeles, 1999