About Jeff Lu 1
Jeff Lu, A Practitioner Pursuing A Life-Long Artistic Creation Combining Arts and Life
In terms of going through certain training or experience for one extraordinary artist, in comparison with the vast majority of artists, Jeff Lu has gone through a profound and unusual one in his life.
Born in 1960, Lu is a native of Taicang in Jiangsu Province of China. He is the second child and only son of his family. Ever since childhood, Lu has demonstrated much ardor and talent for arts. Both Lu’s parents worked in the education field and were too busy to spend time working with Lu in his artistic endeavors themselves; however, Lu took calligraphy lessons from his grandfather since the age of six. All through his childhood, Lu had involved himself in a world of painting and calligraphy. Lu savored and cherished the wonderful time he spent in nurturing his artistic passion while growing up.
Lu enrolled in Shanghai Normal University in 1979 majoring in Arts. After graduation, he became a full-time Art teacher. With years of teaching experiences in him, Lu found himself inspired to become more than just an educator. Determined to cultivate his artistic passion and creativity, Lu headed for the US in 1987 pursuing advanced study in Arts in search of new horizons.
Upon completing his Master’s degree, Lu found himself facing the reality of making a living in a world full of competitions and surviving pressures. Taking advice from his friends, he landed a job in news reporting in order to survive financially, putting off his dream of becoming a full-time artist. Though many artistic talents would eventually diminish from having exhausted their creative enthusiasm and passion in the wake of a long-term engagement in non-artistic job, luckily, Lu has never experienced such loss. On the contrary, Lu’s inner flames for artistic creation have only burned more passionately. What is more, such passion has given rise to his thirst for the pursuit of an eternal artistic life, thus invigorating his determination to immerse himself in artistic creations during all of his leisure moments. Lu always says that he has long been guided by an inner call to move forward toward his artistic creation, no matter how busy he is or how hard a life he faces. He feels satisfied and relieved only while he is holding a paintbrush in his hand. Art is a pre-destination to Lu. Having gone through the vicissitudes of life, he opts to return to the starting point where his passion lies: the arts.
Lu’s vocational experiences in a variety of jobs have not only ensured his financial stability, but also given him inner maturity and strength. His career as a journalist in the recent decade engages him in a world of new information which broadens his perspectives in life, extends his personal horizons and discernment, as well as cultivates his interpersonal relationships, all of which help lay a solid foundation in his subsequent artistic creation.
Lu believes that profound aesthetic discernment, in-depth thought, and distinctive creativity are prerequisites to an extraordinary artist, in addition to having a solid background in artistic techniques. In order to possess these qualities, it is necessary to observe, listen, and think. Lu has consciously engaged himself in pursuing these qualities, always observing, listening, and thinking while threading through Eastern as well as Western worlds of art. Therefore, even though the time he spends in artistic creation falls short of that of many other professional artists, Lu’s overall performance will not be reduced in splendor. What expressed by Lu currently is a sense of self-confidence and release that command our view. Such artistic achievement can only be cultivated from his profound experiences in life, as well as from his internal realization over the integration of Western and Eastern arts.
In the world of artistic creation, each step for Lu in the future will signify indefinite possibility and mission. He believes that arts with real value should possess two distinguished characteristics: reflecting the meaning of time and expressing the artist’s inner world. In other words, an artist who entertains the thought of making contributions to the society will be able to entwine life and arts in his/her creation, and thus giving meaning and depth to his/her work. Looking back through Lu’s journey of artistic creation, his perseverance, self-expectation, as well as his unique artistic ideology are true values and have been constantly reflected in his work. We can be assured that Lu will stay on his creative path and provide the world with unique artistic pieces.