Stamp of approval

They combine to reflect the circle of life, a main theme not only for this exhibition, but also for nature.

"In spite of my age," Han says. "I don't want to get myself restrained. I always keep an open mind to various art forms."

He even implements three-dimensional printing to portray the abundant world in his mind.

Nevertheless, he still struggles for inspiration sometimes.

"Pigs look plain," Han says. "It's challenging to design abundant appearances for it."

However, once he begins to look for inspiration in Chinese folk art, the colorful grassroots aesthetics open like a water tap.

"My ideas just keep flowing," Han says. "Only when an artist is willing to go down, the artistic level can go up."

Han has stated for a long time that he was, for decades, a humble student of a folk artist from a rural area in Shaanxi province.

The difference is, he introduces techniques of classic calligraphy and water-ink paintings in his folk art world. For instance, he uses a marker pen as a major drawing tool, which, of course, is not a traditional medium for a Chinese painter, meaning that he has cut links with any established format before his time.

"We don't necessarily need to see his signature to recognize his work," Wang Yong, a researcher of Chinese National Academy of Arts, says.

"One of the most distinguishing features of his art is his imagination that typically belongs to a child. He is an honest man who always seeks love and beauty from his daily life."

For the upcoming Year of the Pig, Han has drawn 1,600 scripts. Following his typical style, Han uses exaggeration to omit some details of pig bodies, replacing them with decorative patterns.

"In Chinese traditional culture, the pig represents harvest and prosperity," the artist explains. "There is almost no Chinese folklore in which the pig is a miserable character."

He says his scripts can be widely used on different occasions other than the exhibition.

A batch of new year souvenirs have been developed with his pig prints, ranging from calendars to napkins and even lollipops.

However, the most important pattern Han has created is no doubt the one which is to be used on a new set of Chinese zodiac stamps. Since 1980, China annually releases such stamp collections, and Han is the only artist who has been invited to design them three times, with his designs also included in the collections of 1983 and 2017.