Meet Pei Pei Li

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Pei Pei Li. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Pei pei, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

Finding a clear goal right away is difficult for everyone. When I first started creating a few years ago, I couldn’t define the style of my work at that time. However, I believe setting short-term goals is meaningful and necessary because they are easier to identify and accomplish. Achieving small goals step by step allows us to adjust our direction and reflect on our progress.

When I first began painting, I had no idea that I would later focus on portraying characters with missing facial features. Initially, my only aim was to create one painting after another. It was only after I had completed a certain number of works that I started reflecting on my style and considering what makes my work unique. At that point, the content of my creations and how I expressed it became my next goal. As I continue to meet these incremental objectives, I believe that larger, more defined goals will eventually become clearer in the future.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m a full-time independent artist, and recently I’ve been participating in as many exhibitions and art fairs as possible. Right now, I’m exploring how to incorporate traditional Chinese Taoist stories into my work. One key inspiration is the story of Hundun from Zhuangzi’s writings.

In Zhuangzi’s “Inner Chapters,” Hundun is a primordial being representing chaos in its purest form—undifferentiated and whole. The story talks about two emperors, Shu and Hu, who want to repay Hundun for his hospitality. They decide to ‘improve’ him by drilling seven holes for his sensory organs. Unfortunately, this well-meaning act leads to Hundun’s death. This story struck me as deeply tragic and symbolic. Shu and Hu impose their own understanding of completeness on Hundun, viewing his lack of orifices as a deficiency. It speaks to how society tends to project its own norms and expectations onto individuals.

In my work, I represent this tension by creating figures with incomplete facial features. These figures reflect the way societal pressures shape us, but they also show that people strive to protect their pure, inner selves. This theme of maintaining individuality in the face of external influence is central to my artistic exploration.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

As an independent artist, I believe that the three most important things for anyone are persistence in creation, continuous reflection, and not blindly following others. Creating art is a long and often solitary path, and only through perseverance can you break through your own limitations. Staying reflective means being sensitive to changes in the world around you, drawing inspiration from them, but also discerning what fits your personal vision and what might steer you away from it. As for not blindly following trends, it’s a principle that every creator must hold onto. On the journey to express something unique, losing sight of your original intention due to external influences can strip the work of its true meaning.

Today, we live in a time that is both incredibly promising and risky for creators. The rapid advancement of technology has made it easier than ever to share and access information. Artists can effortlessly discover works from different creators all over the world, which is helpful for promoting their own work or even finding inspiration. However, this ease of access comes with a danger: when a creator is exposed to too many external ideas, it becomes easy to lose oneself in the process. If you start shifting your creative direction just to chase trends or popularity, the uniqueness of your art will diminish, and the act of creation itself could lose its purpose.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

Right now, I’m facing a creative bottleneck, which is probably my biggest challenge at the moment. I’ve been working with the theme of figures lacking facial features for some time, and I want to keep developing this as a distinctive style—something uniquely Lipeipei. But at the same time, I feel the need to introduce new elements into my work to ensure it remains creative and vibrant.

I’ve been thinking about blending these faceless figures with landscapes, allowing the figures to be a constant, unchanging motif while experimenting with the environment around them. I hope this approach will keep my work fresh, but I’m still in the thinking and experimenting phase. I suspect this challenge will stay with me for a few more months. In the meantime, I’m considering drawing other subjects, such as landscapes or objects, to keep my creative flow going. I believe that continuing to create, even outside my main theme, helps keep the mind active and open to new ideas.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.popos.world
• Instagram: peipei.world
• Other: Email lipeipei0525@gmail,com