The phenomena of life common to plants have long been a subject in literature, and their life characteristics may metaphorically represent the lives of human beings. The creation, upon which this research is based, is employed to explore the use of mixed media in presenting human life implications via plants. The research questions are as follows:

How can mixed media be used to present human life implications via plants? What creative concepts, theories, forms and content, media and techniques should be considered?

Inspired by Zen paintings and with Buddhist sutra as the creative concepts, this creation came into being using mixed media of ready-made objects, with an eye to bringing out the human life implications via plants. Based on plant species and human beings’ life stages, the creation comes in five series: instant, birth, pristine form of life, morality and purity. Later, an exhibition with guided tours was held to display the creation.

From this creation that presents the life implications of plants with mixed media, it was found that:

1. Different plant varieties symbolize different facets of human life; therefore, they constitute the underlying meanings of this creation;

2. The theory behind this creation is derived from Buddhist classics, such as the Diamond Sutra;

3. The diverse creative forms of this creation are inspired by surrealism and Xie He’s “six principles of Chinese paintings”;

4. The combination of plant material and art media suggests five life issues: time, birth/death, self, morality, and purity.