Shyang-Jou Gong (1996) and Tong-Por Tay (1996) were developed according to pictures of the deceased as worshipped in family shrines. No major changes are made to the way traditional painters paint them, except that some personal interpretations are added. In Shyang-Jou Gong, because the protagonist has a high status as an early immigrant to Taiwan in my family, a shrine-like composition and a traditional background with “high mountains and long rivers” are used to accentuate his prestige. In my early works (1992~1995), the landscape background is mostly painted as conventions require, and not much personal creativity may be added. In painting Shyang-Jou Gong, however, I abandon traditional green landscape. Instead, mountains are white, and waters are black, with blue contours. This is adapted from the “white-base, blue contour” technique in folk decoration. To emphasize the toughness and diligence of early immigrants like Shyang-Jou Gong, I sculpted the figure on an earth plate with a grinding machine to achieve a stone-carving effect. The auspicious pattern commonly embroidered on the vestment (on the chest part) is replaced with a wreath made of unhusked rice, suggesting that Shyang-Jou Gong had come to Taiwan to establish a new family on a new land. The tile decorations on top not only give the painting a fun modern twist, but also reduce the authoritativeness of an ancestor in traditional worship painting. (Peng Hsien-hsiang)