After years of uncertainty over what purpose my inherent proclivity toward creation may serve in my life, I understand now that for me, art is the purest form of human communication. It expresses what all languages cannot, in the way it transfers raw emotional and cerebral information, and it holds the capacity to provoke the most feral of human reactions: those of sight and instinct. In language, words transmit a common surface meaning, but their intrinsic impact may become distorted or misinterpreted; in art, though individuals have personalized reactions to the work‚s superficial qualities, the overarching emotional, psychological, and societal impact is universally understood.
As an Asian-American growing up in a predominantly white suburb of Chicago during the 90's, I came to know isolation and rejection at a young age. These sentiments, coupled with familial debilitation throughout my childhood, have tempered my life with an understanding of melancholia, which tends to voice itself through my artwork. It is not the racial aspect of my experiences that defines my art, but rather the larger concept of aloneness and displacement.
In my work, I explore a combination of textiles, household materials, and traditional media, drawing being a staple facet. These pieces reflect my belief that humanity exists in a tenuous state–both as a collective entity and as individuals–as I use the physical qualities of various media to convey a sense of unease and frailty. In Rapunzel Shed Your Skin, the precarious notion of aesthetic beauty, juxtaposed against an overriding sense of self-deprecation and inadequacy, is accentuated by the disjointed drawn figure and the shaky thread running across the piece.
Ultimately, rather than merely illustrate distress, I want to penetrate that and expose the viewer to moments of lucidity amidst this emotional fragmentation and dilapidation. I acknowledge the fragility and despair in a perpetually accelerating society, while at the same time revealing the human ability to rise above the clamor of daily existence. My work is meant to capture and compound upon moments when the mechanics of humanity, its vices, and its passions flash fleetingly into focus.
born:1993, Chicago
education:
Parsippany Hills High School, diploma, 2011
selected awards/honors
Gold Key, Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, 2011
1st place "Roots" Art Competition, Grand View University, 2010
1st place graphite, Blackwell Street Juried Art Show, Atrium Gallery, Morristown, NJ, 2010
selected publications
Artist Portfolio Magazine, Issue 1. Garden Grove, CA. Cover, p.4&7, 2010
selected
group shows
Decorative Arts International: American Juried Art Salon, online, 2011
Arisia Convention: Student Art Show, Boston, MA, 2011
"Figurative." Light, Space, and Time Gallery, online, 2010
"Melancholy: At the Bottom of Everything." Projekt30, online, 2010
