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马到成功 / Success Arrives with the Horse
Dec. 2025Ceramics, Mixed Media
6.5” x 6.5” x 8”
“This mixed media ceramic work takes as its point of departure the Chinese idiom "马到成功，旗开得胜," a phrase used to bless new beginnings with the promise of swift success.”
The work is shaped by my experience founding a nonprofit organization over the past year. Since its inception, I have moved within a sustained current of momentum, feeling both propelled forward and quietly carried by expectation. The horse is rendered mid-stride, neither in full charge nor at rest, held in a suspended state between intention and arrival. In this moment, success is not declared or completed, but unfolding. Tempered by hesitation, awareness, and controlled movement.
The horse’s backward glance gently unsettles the immediacy implied by 马到成功 (Success Arrives with the Horse). It suggests reflection within motion and evokes a sense of 游刃有余 (“with room to spare”), an ease that comes not from speed but from attunement. Subtle homage to blue-and-white porcelain situates the form within a longer visual and cultural lineage, while layered mixed media elements mark a contemporary negotiation of that inheritance. The rounded contour of the horse echoes the vessel itself, emphasizing containment alongside forward drive. Together, these elements consider success not as an arrival point, but as a sustained condition shaped by restraint, endurance, and ongoing adjustment.