It was like the people in my portraits would shed layers of their skin and lay themselves quite bare in front of me. Even if I had been friends with these people for ten years or so I felt, in the midst of the painting process, that I was just getting to know them in a new and fresh way. They were like live objects, and in the process of painting I could travel into their lives. The whole physical and mental process of painting was again very enjoyable to me, in a way it had not been for years. For example, in two of the portraits, two of the sitter’s are prostitutes. One of the girls was sixteen and I met her after her first day at work. The other had been working in the red light district of Lijiang for over ten years. When both of them were sitting in my studio they really opened up. I was amazed by their understanding and comprehension of art. When we started discussing art it was as though we had known each other for other 100 years. The 16 year old confessed she couldn’t talk to anyone else the way she could to me.

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Dongba shaman (which means “ wise man” and can be a witch doctor, scholar, or craftsman, as well as an artist) is an archetype that Mu Yuming is acutely aware of in his observations of daily life, which he sees within the context of his larger, priest-like mindfulness. There are many references to Dongba Culture in his works, which are about the contrast between ancient practices and the spiritual poverty of modern society, the constant duality in nature between people and cultures, and, at the end of the day, the pointlessness of it all. Suffice it to say these cultural pointers from his heritage have inspired him to confront his world from an entirely new perspective