Ya Lun Zheng is a Taiwanese artist currently based in Glasgow. She recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. Working primarily with acrylic, oils, and charcoal, Ya Lun explores the fluid interaction between dreams, memory, and consciousness, as well as their blurred boundaries. Through her creations, she aims to reveal poetic and unknown spaces within human perception, connecting personal experience with shared, collective imagination. Her practice often draws inspiration from lakes, mountains, and landscapes, where natural elements such as stones, rivers, branches, and forests act as vessels of ancestral and cultural memory. By reinterpreting these forms, Ya Lun dismantles conventional concepts of landscape and narrative, creating spaces that hover between the everyday, memory, and imagination. Dreams and subconscious imagery guide the flow of colour and composition, allowing me to reconstruct familiar elements into landscapes that evoke both inherited memory and visions of the future.

See Ya Lun work as part of our annual autumn open call exhibition, Future/Past, featuring a sublime collection of works by twenty six artists inspired by ancestral echoes and future visions; pieces that dismantle tradition, reimagine narratives, and linger in the margins of the radical, the oneiric, and the everyday.

Thanks for being with us Ya Lun. Can you walk us through your creative process?
First, I need a cup of coffee, maybe some tea, and, I have to confess, a cigarette. I hope my parents never read this; otherwise, I might lose my ‘baby cigarette’ and maybe my inspiration as well.

I usually start painting with music playing in the background. The act of painting itself pulls me into a different state of consciousness. My mind begins to flood with images and sparks of inspiration. Sometimes I know exactly where they come from – fragments of daily life, fleeting moments, and scenes I have unconsciously collected. But more often, it feels like something deeper: memories buried within, fragments of lived experience resurfacing and taking shape on the canvas as I follow the flow of awareness.

How do you overcome creative blocks?
My creative block usually appears when I stop painting, when I slip into a state of stillness, or even ‘stuckness’. In that heavy, almost slumped state, I start to feel waves of anxiety, tension, and pressure piling up, layer by layer. And when I feel like I might break under the weight of it all… that’s when I pick up the brush again. Painting becomes my release valve. I have to paint because only by creating do I feel restored, as if I return to a sense of wholeness.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
I don’t really like saying that I ‘hope to see certain reactions from the audience’. I’m not the type to talk much about emotions or reactions. If people feel a sense of resonance or connection with my work, that’s wonderful, but even if their feelings are completely different, that’s great as well, because it can spark a mutual exchange and inspire new perspectives. When viewers are curious about my work and find it interesting, a connection can form, opening the door to further dialogue.

How do you typically approach your creative process from initial inspiration to the completion of your artwork?
It’s really just painting stroke by stroke, one line at a time (laughs). My work isn’t created all at once; it needs time to settle and develop. That’s why I usually work on several pieces simultaneously. During the process, I also enjoy experimenting a little, playing with my usual materials to create variations I haven’t tried before, such as changing steps in the process, adjusting proportions, or exploring different effects. Every day, I look at the paintings. Some days, I feel like adding a few strokes here or there. On other days, I think that nothing needs to be changed. And then, one day, when it finally feels just right – that’s when it’s finished.

What challenges did you experience during the creation of your work and how did you
overcome them?
The challenge is always how to go beyond the previous painting. While I’m working, I often think about how this piece can push further, how it can be a kind of breakthrough. Of course, my style remains; it’s not really about technique or method. It’s more about creating a different feeling, something that comes closer to what I genuinely want to express.

What do you do to keep motivated and interested in your work?
Since I was a child, the only thing that could truly hold my attention has been drawing. Words like ‘motivation’ or ‘interest’ don’t quite fit; they feel a bit passive. When I’m drawing, I’m completely immersed. Many emotions and thoughts are too complex to express fully in words, and only through painting can I convey everything I want to say and feel. I do it, it happens naturally. Of course, traveling, continuous learning, and sharing ideas with others are vital. They breathe fresh inspiration into my work and sustain the creative journey.

Connect with Ya Lun on Instagram. Future/Past runs at Six Foot Gallery until Tuesday 14th October.