Jan Zhou, an American-Chinese, a spiritual seeker, certified Raja Yoga Heartfulness Meditation trainer, an artist, and designer, who was born in Shanghai China. She graduated from Columbia College of Chicago in BFA. Now she is working in her design studio, teaching design subjects at Donghua University in Shanghai, China.

 

For the last twenty years, Jan has lived between the East and the West. She found that the ancient eastern modest was eroded by the western egoism. The gap between Man and the nature has been getting widen. One hand, we are having more comforts in material life; but another hand, we are far disconnected from our true selves. The modern diseases engulf our souls.

 

When we have lost the goal of life, we start to seek life’s meaning. In the spring of 2008, Jan met a Heartulness meditation trainer, known alternately as Sahaj Marg (which means ‘natural path’ in Hindi). At that point, her spiritual journey was started. Each year she travels to India for her practice. Through this journey, she realized that God is the only creator. That nature was created in a meticulous and spontaneous way. She appreciates the Japanese aesthetic-"Wabi-Sabi". To her, there is life after death and creation after destruction. The true beauty of life is in its imperfection and incompleteness of nature’s way. Everything surrounding us has its life and purpose. We are connected one way or another. We are all living in a giant magnified field. Jan tries to deliver life’s truths about beauty and tranquility through her art.

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In 2011, she encountered a material which she thought could be innovated into new type method for decorative art. After more than five unrelenting years of continuous exploration, from configuring pigments, creating new physical tools, readjusting the temperature and amount of time of exposure to heat, this delicate sculptural relief became her solace, her method of choice for artistic expression.

 

The essence of "Rui" is that everything changes in a state of permanence yet that very change occurs in constant motion.