By Christy Yee
“Roots'' is a triptych that Christy did three years ago. It was her first mixed media collage and is one of her favorites to this day. The prompt for the collage was migration and she chose to tell her family's immigration story through this piece. Both her mom and dad immigrated from Hong Kong in the 60's. The first panel represents Hong Kong and the character is her and her family’s last name. The second panel represents their journey to the states and the contrasting colors are meant to highlight the uncertainty that came with moving to the states. The last panel represents America and finally making it feel like home after settling down. The black paint in the background ties the triptych together and symbolizes her family's roots both in Hong Kong and in America. She hopes this piece resonates with at least a few other Asian artists!
Christy is a Chinese American girl born and raised in San Francisco. She says that she was always bad at drawing or any form of art as a kid. It wasn't until a mandatory art class she took in freshman year that she discovered her love for drawing! She is a self taught realism and collage artist. She doesn’t draw or collage as much as she would like to, but that only means that she has a lot to learn and more skills to develop. She thinks using art as a form of expression is especially important for the asian community because it is often taught that art isn't worth spending time on since it's not "practical" or "useful." She has found that creating art is a safe space for her to express herself and it also serves as a therapeutic activity for her.
Originally created and posted on Instagram (@creativelyasian). Click to go to the original post!