你害怕什麼？是黑暗，是孤獨，還是某些說不清道不明的存在？對16mei而言，恐懼從來不是必須戰勝的敵人，而是創作的源頭。這位從不露面的藝術家，將最私密的情感世界鋪展於畫布之上，讓觀者得以窺見那些她未曾言說的秘密。在她筆下，少女、植物與漩渦交織出一片既美麗又令人隱隱不安的國度。

What are you afraid of? Perhaps darkness, perhaps solitude, perhaps something ineffable. For 16mei, fear has never been an enemy to overcome but a creative origin. This artist who never reveals herself spreads her most intimate emotional world across canvases, allowing viewers to glimpse secrets she won’t voice. In her work, girls, plants, and swirls interweave into a realm both beautiful and unsettling.

有些藝術家選擇曝光在聚光燈下，16mei卻反其道而行。關於她的一切都稀少如謎：沒有詳盡的個人背景，沒有公開的真實面貌，連基本的創作經歷也語焉不詳。這種神秘本身已足夠迷人，但更動人的，是她所構築的那個蒼白少女與蓊鬱植物共生的世界。在那裡，所有她不願訴說的秘密，都化為綠意盎然的枝葉與漩渦流轉的筆觸。

Some artists choose the spotlight; 16mei does the opposite. Information about her is as scarce as a riddle: no detailed background, no public face, even basic creative history remains vague. This mystery itself is fascinating, but what’s more captivating is the world she paints of pale girls and dense vegetation. There, all the secrets she won’t speak transform into green branches and swirling brushstrokes.

16mei 的畫作透著童話般的詭譎。畫中少女總是閉著雙眼，或面容模糊，被層層植物包圍，猶如迷失在森林中的孩子。但這些植物不僅是背景，它們幾乎像擁有生命，帶著某種溫柔而近乎侵略性的姿態，向畫面中央蔓延。這些反覆出現的元素，源自藝術家童年時期的三種恐懼：植物、清醒夢，與水面。16mei 沒有逃避它們，而是將它們一次次繪入作品，不斷凝視，直到從恐懼中看見美。她的目標是「以一種舒適的方式來描繪這些恐懼中的美」，而畫布就是她的實驗場。

16mei’s paintings possess a fairy-tale eeriness. The girls always have their eyes closed or expressions obscured, surrounded by layers of plants, like children lost in storybook forests. But these plants aren’t mere backdrops; they spread toward the canvas’s center almost alive, with a gentle aggression. It turns out these recurring elements stem from three childhood fears: plants, lucid dreams, water surfaces. Rather than avoiding these fears, 16mei paints them repeatedly, gazing until she discovers beauty within terror. Her goal is to “depict the beauty within these fears in a comfortable manner,” with the canvas as her laboratory.

在 16mei 的色彩運用中蘊含着一種矛盾的張力。大片的深綠與墨黑營造出幽暗氛圍，而少女的身影卻以淡黃或米白呈現，彷彿透出微光。這樣的對比讓畫面既壓抑又溫暖，如同黑暗中忽然亮起的一盞燈。她筆下的女孩受漫畫與動漫影響，並非寫實人物而更像某種象徵。她們可能是天使，也可能是人魚，沒有明確的性別與種族，只是一種純粹的存在。這些女孩看似天真嬌柔，內心卻蘊藏著「不被恐懼折服的力量」。

In 16mei’s color palette, you can sense a contradictory tension. Vast areas of deep green and black create a shadowy atmosphere, yet the girls appear in pale yellow or off-white, emitting faint light. This contrast makes the entire scene both oppressive and warm, like a lamp suddenly appearing in darkness. Her girls, influenced by manga and anime, aren’t realistic figures but symbols. They might be angels or mermaids, without specific gender or race, just pure imagery. These girls appear innocent and delicate but possess “strength that refuses to be subdued by fear.”

16mei 將繪畫稱為「面對自我內心世界的一場儀式」。在這儀式中，她不斷重複相同的主題，如同某種心靈療癒的過程。那些曾經令她煎熬的事物，如今成為她創作的核心。而我們作為觀者，在凝視這些畫作時，或許也正參與這場儀式。在那些美麗而令人不安的畫面裡，我們看見的不僅是她的恐懼，也是我們自己的映照。

16mei calls painting “a ritual for confronting my inner world.” In this ritual, she repeatedly explores the same themes, like a psychological healing process. What once tormented her now forms her creative core. And we as viewers, when gazing at these works, perhaps participate in this ritual too. In these beautiful yet unsettling scenes, we see not only her fears but our own.

圖片提供：16mei｜Courtesy of 16mei