My Official Happy Family Day Statement

The excuses to blog about my work are endless. Some people say you should make artwork that is impersonal, based on theory, but I'm pretty personal about my stuff. I actually find personal work a lot more interesting. Part of it is knowing about the human who made it but also I think human experience is interesting. Some of it is varied but a lot of it can be quite relatable as well. Anyhow, seeing family day coincided with Chinese new years, this painting comes to mind. It's a family portrait of my family in Chinese zodiac animals. A number of us work in healthcare hence I really sprinkled on the stethoscopes there. This is just the immediate, add on the extended and we really could probably open up our own hospital. It's not a bad thing. That's not to say some of us aren't arty either, I like to think we're a renaissance bunch. 

Family Portrait acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 x 1.5 inches 2017 $1500

Below here is a close up of a snake hug. We have a lot of rats and snakes in the family, which might explain why we don't always get along. I added in my favourite family feast dishes my grandma makes. Below you have sticky rice wrapped in leaves and the slippery eggy shrimp with bits of parsley that pairs so well with rice.

My husband is a pig, depicted in his hat and the rat below here is Dr. Dad, with his very prominent eyebrows. My mom's passion is the sewing machine. Growing up she made all our clothes and then some. When my classmates had to buy their uniforms from the campus store, my mom would just do her research there and make our uniforms herself for a tenth of the price in material costs.

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Here is me in my red beret. I was always extremely arty growing up, it actually got to be a problem. My mom was always bugging me to clean my room, it was just filled with piles of art projects. Eventually I learned to just cram it all under the bed and in the closets to make my room appear cleaner. Ng in Chinese is written upside down there in Chinese calligraphy, which my grandma is quite the master at.

Here are my parents, the green snake is my mom. She's wearing a pendant of Lam, her maiden name.

More tasty dishes, beef brisket, salmon and beef balls, all with parsley! Parsley comes in such big bunches and I don't think my grandma likes to waste anything. She's a first generation immigrant, hard life style, it carries over.

Well that's it for family day, I worked so I didn't really get to see my family. That's another thing with my family, we never really get together for the big holidays like New Years, Christmas, nor Thanksgiving because healthcare people are generally working. My family is weird like that, instead we get together on random Sundays for dinners at grandma's. Growing up there were also language barriers, I've always had trouble communicating, it's probably why I draw pictures, one of the great universal languages.