Art and Culture

In this drawing, I used rich red to spread the color of the flowers in a small shop. Behind the red flowers, a woman holding a greeting card with a heart on it is picking flowers for her loved ones. In the background, the shop owner is peaking at the woman with a smile and a man is putting a flower crown on another man. Behind them, two additional young girls are cuddling while picking a bouquet. This was drawn when the world just coming out of the pandemic. I wanted to draw a scene that expresses human affection and contact - something we need but had been inhibited from doing during the pandemic. A flower shop is a place full of intentions and interactions - there are intentions to express love by choosing flowers for loved ones and interactions in the process of picking flowers. This drawing speaks about us as humans, the people we care about and how we show our care and love to them. 

Cat is a central figure in the Japanese culture. As a cat lover, I was intrigued by the Maneki-neko when I saw it the first time in a store window. Maneki-neko is an ornamental cat waving one of its paws at people, a symbol of welcoming, luck, forune, happiness and prosperity. It is displayed in stores, offices and many business premises to bring in customers, revenues and good luck. Here I use drawing to portray a dream land where many maneki-neko ornaments come alive at night after the humans have gone to bed. The Chinese character in the background means "cat".   

A digital drawing for the Montgomery County Public School's magazine Amplifier to explore the topic of mental health of teenagers. This digital drawing shows a teenager being fully absorbed into her iphone at late night, causing her not to be able to sleep.