The Legend of My Life

In the Watson gallery, six batiks hang completed. Two translucent figures pull them in two directions, one east, and the other west.

On one side is the sun which rises with the year of the tiger as he watches with large orbed eyes. The feline’s stripes flow into the mother figure who carries her twin daughters into this new day. The mother tiger with her two cubs below echo this scene and one lone tiger walks into the sunset as the day comes to an end and twilight begins.

On the other side is the nighttime sky which sets during the age of Pisces. Represented by two

colossal marlin fish, the Pisces constellation dominates this end. From the center of the semi-circle stretches chains on which the fish’s tails are joined. The meeting of these chains are joined by a single and beautiful star, called the “knot of tails.” Marine animals of all kinds swim in this sea of stars and galaxies which flows from the mother’s water jar onto the twins beneath.

If the tiger is the king of beasts on land, then the Marlin fish is the king of creatures in the sea. The first is representative of my Chinese heritage, the second my Western upbringing. They pull against each other, their v-shaped compositions balancing the overall work.

 

In the middle two panels we see the result of this fusion of cultures: a set of twins connected by a thin veil of water. One sister stands firmly within a simple Chinese landscape, the other floats on a multicolored pond. Even as she is getting drenched with a waterfall of fish, she manages to keep her lotus flower dry, a souvenir from her past. Petals from the flower however, have fallen to mix with the pond of colorful fish below.

With paths of molten wax on wavering silk, I drew the legend of my life. From six blank pieces of fabric comes one finished work full of colors, meaning and symbols pertinent to me. It is at the end of this journey of creation that I am able to look at myself anew and see who I really am. Throughout this process, I have grown and changed alongside my work. With this new and improved version of myself, I will begin a new journey full of adventures, trials and unexpected discoveries.

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