刻木刻对于刘庆元来说不再是一件神圣的事情，刻木刻是说话，是走路，是一种和他生活密切相关的平常举动。它们同样是形象，同样是事件，同样对既定的一切发则提出了挑战。这表明木刻不仅是艺术家己将它作为一生的唯一选择，同时也预示着从今以后木刻将通过介入现实而具有一定的杀伤力。他现在差不多己经明白了。退后一点看，这个世界并没有什么真正的变化，他应该号召所有的木刻家们重新拣起刻刀，把周围的生活搅热一点。但最好是先往自己身上捅一刀。

———陈侗 艺术批评家

Woodcutting is no longer a sacred behavior for Liu Qingyuan. Woodcutting is to speak, to walk, a common behavior closely related to his daily life. They are still images, still events, still challenges to all set regulations. This means woodcut is not just a choice for life for the artist but also predicts that woodcut shall cut into reality and cause a result. He has almost got it now. To take one step behind, there isn’t any substantial change in this world. He should call upon all woodcutters to pick up their knives to disturb the life around, but better to just cut into themselves first.

---Chen Tong, Art Critic

至于刘庆元为什么选择木刻，我从来没有寻问过，所以无从知晓。不过我想这个问题不重要。我只知道，自从刘庆元选择了木刻以后，黑白就成为他不变的实践。自从黑白上身以后，木刻就成为他唯一的呼吸。而面对一个人的呼吸，唯一的呼吸，我想我们能够随便加以轻视吗？要知道，轻视一个人的呼吸，就是轻视一个活生生的种类。所以谁也没有这个权利，从轻视一个种类到轻视一个人的呼吸。 这就是刘庆元，他的木刻，他的黑白，和他的呼吸。

———扬小彦 艺术批评家

I have never asked Liu Qingyuan why he chose woodcut, so I would not know. But I don’t think that is an important question. I only know, since the day he chose it, black and white has become his never-changing practices. Since he started with black and white, woodcutting has become his only way of breathing. So facing someone’s breaths, someone’s only way of breathing, can we easily look down upon it? You should know to look down upon someone’s breath is to look down upon a whole living species. Therefore no one has the right to discern a species, an individual’s breaths. That is Liu Qingyuan, his woodcut, his black and white and his breaths.

--Yang Xiaoyan, Art Critic

坚持黑白分明的道路，这正是刘庆元的基本纲领。木刻家的个性被他的器物所照亮，变得更加犀利起来。在雕版的上空涌现了强悍的黑白对话。这是木器的神学，不倦地书写着光与暗的对位。借助人与木纸的契约，史诗的叙事被解放了，产生出某种摇撼人心的宏大力量。
刘庆元就这样握住了木刻的灵魂。他比任何人都更深地预见到，“在完成最后一张黑白木刻的时候，你会看到色彩。”但这不是世俗的五彩，而是世界的原色。

———朱大可 批评家

To insist a clearly divided path of black and white is the basic creed of Liu Qingyuan. The woodcutter’s personality is lighted by his tool and gets sharper and sharper. Surging on the carving board, there is a powerful conversation between black and white. This is the theology of woods, the unworn writing of oppositions of light and dark. With the contract between human and wood and paper, the narration of epics is emancipated and generates a heart-shaking force. Liu Qingyuan thus grasps the soul of woodcut. He has predicted further than anyone else that, “after finishing the last black and white woodcut, you will see colors.” But these are not worldly colors, but the original colors of the world.

--Zhu Dake, Critic

刘庆元始终坚持以自己的方式在前行——在今天这样一个功利和浮躁的社会，刘庆元能够不去追随某种“业已成功”或者“流行”的模式，而以一种知识分子的心态去在他的黑白木刻世界中关注中国本土的文化情境，不断创造那些能够刺激我们心灵，引发我们思考的形象，这不能不说是一种个性的体现，也是一种艺术家所应该具有的知识分子情感的体现。

———马永建 艺术史学家

Liu Qingyuan has marched forward in his own way from the start. In such a snobbish and superficial world, the fact that Liu Qingyuan did not follow a certain “successful” or “popular” mode, but chose the local Chinese culture in his black and white woodcut world, and to continuously make images that stimulates and inspires, is truly a remarkable individuality, as well as a quality a true intellect shall have.

--Ma Yongjian, Art Historian

我认为刘庆元首先是一位真正意义上的自觉的艺术家。他是一个知道自己是谁，自己可以干什么，自己要干什么的艺术家。这种艺术家像植物一样，是有机地发展和长成起来的。他并不特别偏爱明或暗，阳光或雨水，他就是他所是的，他就在他所在的。与此相称，他对宇宙、世界、人生也是采取全局性的统览，既爱观察又爱反省。他走他的路，自然而自信，尽管未必胸中有地图，却有明确的方向。重要的是，当方向明确之后，他能够平静地对待路上或大或小的阻碍和诱惑。他从事一门几乎失传的技艺，并不是为了与众不同；他选择木刻，不如说是木刻选择他；他喜欢黑白并不是因为他讨厌彩色；他支持这并不是因为他反对那；他既走在时代面前，又落在时代后面，那是因为时代对他来说不只是前面或后面；他既前卫又保守，那是因为前卫或保守都不是他的考虑，而只是一条复杂的脉络中的两条暗线而已；他不断在变，那不是因为他刻意求新，而是自然发展，格局早已在那里，他只不过是把它廓清而已。

———黄灿然 诗人 翻译家

I think Liu Qingyuan is above all a true self-conscious artist. He knows who he is, what he can do and what he wants to do. Such artists are like plants, they grow and develop organically. He does not have a special preference for either brightness or darkness, sun or rain. He is what he is and stays where he is. In accordance, he has an overall perspective upon universe, world and life. He observes and reflects. He walks his own way, naturally and confidently. He does not necessarily have a map yet he knows his directions very well. What’s important is that when he is clear with his direction, he faces all kinds of obstacles as well as temptations on his road calmly. He chooses an almost lost technique not because he wants to be different. It’s better to say woodcut chooses him than he chooses woodcut; he likes black and white, not because he dislikes colors; he supports one side without being against the other; he is both ahead of his time and behind, that’s because time means more than ahead and behind for him; he is both avant-garde yet conservative, that’s because both are not his concerns but two underlying lines in a complicated network; he is constantly changing, not because he intentionally wants to seek novelty, but because it is a natural development. The framework is already there, he is but outlining it.

--Huang Canran, Poet and Renown Translator

不管怎么说，我对“现实一种”有一种偏爱，艺术的明晰往往蕴含着切实的力量和健康的神秘。当人们试图从正面深入的时候，可能会忽略也许从侧面迂回可以走得更远，当然具体有效的迂回路径的选择还是会让艺术家绞尽脑汁。但是，与其坐着思考，不如象刘庆元那样拿起电锯，现在就做，让思想和形象在震颤中成形。

———凌越 诗人

No matter what, I have a preference for “one kind of reality”. Artistic clarity often includes a practical power and a healthy mystery. When people try to cut directly into the matter, they might forget that they might get further from an indirect side. Of course, choosing an effective indirect path still racks artists’ brains. Yet, better than just sit and think, one should take a drill and start now, like Liu Qingyuan, to form one’s thoughts and images in shivering.

--Ling Yue, Poet

木刻的主动脉是刀，尽管我们永远没机会看到这把刀。但在一部部的黑白电影里，我们听到了这把刀在奏响着旋津，刀飞快地剔除着时代精神面貌下剩余的脂肪，最后只留下我们光溜溜的表情和一致的面孔。我们只有委托这把刀来如实地总结我们表情的中心思想。

——— 邱大立 乐评人

The major artery of woodcut is knife, although we never get to see it. Yet in one after another black and white films, we hear the knife making a melody, it cuts off the excessive fat in the era and leaves only our bare look and identical faces. We can only entrust this knife to summarize faithfully the gist of our expressions.

---Qiu Dali, Music Critic