Awakening - 2008

What does it mean to be a Chinese American... its means finding the right balance of the two worlds of thinking. Taking the best of both worlds and making something new, something better. What makes America great is that you can be yourself and still be unique and live a meaningful life.
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I thought about this as I was prepping lessons to teach two weeks ago. Was digging through my old stuff at my parents. I still feel many of my old pieces have strong concepts but my skills were not up to par to really flesh them out right.

This one particularly stayed with me. It was a piece about myself... my wildest dream of having the magical ability to make the things I make come to life. It bugs me now to know I drew a Caucasian girl in my place. Because of the difficulties I faced at home and at school... I didn't think much of myself... my heritage... and didn't see anything about me that would be appealing to anyone. 12 years later... things are different. Like the painting... I'm still a work in progress finding the right balance of everything that makes me the person I am... and will become.

Took about 16 hours.

This drawing was inspired by the Chinese story "Liang and The Magic Paintbrush" featured on Reading Rainbow, sold here: [link] and a version of the story text here: [link] I heard about as a kid.