If you think about everything you see as a painting, walking in the fog or staring at your ceiling in the dark is a meditative moment. Your sense loses focus in the emptiness, therefore returns to your inner self, where the warmth and intimacy overcome the insecurity given by not having a reference point in the emptiness. A painter faces such a moment before the first stroke lands on the plain picture panel; one is absorbed by the overwhelming blank, emptying the mind into a sea of thoughts.

Shen Chen’s art drifts in a synthesis of emptiness and abundance. He paints with a flat tip brush, and because he has to stand and hold it like a broom, the brush only leaves straight lines from one side to the other across his canvas. After he fills the frame for once, he waits till the acrylic is dry, and paints it again. Such motion is mechanical, but the traces he left form a harmonic image of dense, tangible strokes like a hand-woven tapestry. Shen’s weaving is time-consuming, always taking him months to finish. During which period, his mind has to be entirely focused and enclosed, turning the process of painting into a process of facing himself.

如果你把你眼前的世界想象成图画，在雾中行走或者盯着天花板就都是便于冥想的时刻。你的感官在空白中无法聚焦，于是干脆回到你的内心。这时，独处的温暖和私密感就战胜了空白带来的不安全感。在画家动笔前面对空白画布的时刻，画家就需要面对这样的现象学情形。主观感受被空白而巨大的画布吞噬，再次沉入思想的海洋。

沈忱的艺术在空白与充盈之间漂流。他把画布平放在地上，用一个平头长刷子创作。因为他需要一直站着，像拿扫帚一样拿笔刷，他就只能从画布的一端到另一端画直线。当他把画面铺满一回后，他会等到丙烯颜料风干，之后再画下一层。这是机械的过程，但他留下的厚实且富有触感的线条组成一幅和谐的画面，如同一张手工编织的挂毯。沈忱的创作过程极其漫长。他常需要花几个月来完成一幅作品。在这个过程中，他的精力需要高度集中且封闭，将绘画的过程变成面对自我的过程。