[Untitled]

With the bold and realistic watercoloring and layering of gouache, the artwork aims to give a light touch with a play on lighting. The brightness offsets the underlying meanings of the piece by making the composition of the two focal points easy to look at and interesting to dissect.

The past and future of cultural identity is emphasized as the depiction of a young girl with a curious and naive expression stares out ahead in the distance at someone. In contrast, the Chinese dragon bears its fangs at the unfamiliar figure reflected in its eyes in a protective stance. The little girl symbolizes past identity and the comfort she unknowingly feels when around her culture, especially at such a young and impressionable age. However, as one accumulates experiences, exposure to new ideas, and grows up which are all inevitable as first gen, the connection dwindles— masked by the new that ironically becomes more familiar than the old. In a way, perhaps culture and the girl in the future fear each other, weary of the other’s judgment and change after being worn down by time. Perhaps the girl in the future sees herself as the small girl and feels nostalgic for things that once was and will never be. The artwork focuses on Chinese culture in traditional hanfu dresses and the power and internalized strength of a multifaceted identity symbolized by the dragon. The lighting and use of watercolor tries to construct the piece based on hope, solemn ambition, and flexibility of one’s identity.