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Printmaking

Did You Eat My Memory?

Title
Did You Eat My Memory
Technique
Etching, Aquatint, Soft Ground
Paper
Okawara
Year
2021
Location
Atlanta
Plate Size
8'' by 12''
Everything can be the container that bears memory. Our human body carries memory, they comes and goes, they appears and stays. Have you recall a time when we pass a door, or enter a new space, our memory starts a self clean-up process. That’s called Doorway Effect. While walking back to the old room doesn’t recall memory. Whether we wish to perform the cleaning action voluntarily or unwillingly, our brain helps us maintain greater capacity for better workspace. But when we notice the forcefulness, how do us feel? Regret? Annoyed? Relief? Or feeling grateful?
 
So the theme of this quarter’s work is memory. In the digital world, when everything can be pixelated, only the memory that I carve in lines and print out the clues or witness of that they ever exists, and they can be reproduced in different forms. Or memory will disappear as my brain cells die.
 
Let’s start with this. Sometimes I look at my laundry machine, where I always lost one side of my socks. I was wondering: you ate my sock, and did you eat my memory? Maybe the door of the laundry machine, is the door that leads to forgetfulness. All the items illustrated are the toys that I owned in my childhood, and the apartment we lived were torn down due to civil planning purpose. They are gone in real life, but they stay in my memory. 
DidYouEatMyMemory_1_10.jpg
DidYouEatMyMemory_2_10.jpg

The Trouble Maker

Title
The Trouble Maker
Technique
Etching, Aquatint
Paper
BFK Rives White
Year
2021
Location
Atlanta
Plate Size
18'' by 24''
My mom and I have always been in a good relation, we never argued with each other and we love unconditionally. There was only a few times in my childhood memory that she was mad at me. 

I had horrible tooth problem since I was little, going to the dentist was an annual nightmare, or more often. There was one time that I didn't want to get my molar tooth pulled, and I was crying hysterically for several hours and lied about not feeling well. Mom was mad at me, so she threw me out of the house and let me cry at the stairs. I ended up get that tooth pulled still, but I believe there was a tooth fairy that lives in my tooth and creates all the trouble, but not me. 

This print is also a way to appreciate my mom, who dedicated her whole life to me, her only child, with patience and encouragement to cheer for my achievement. Where she is, is always home. 

 
The Trouble Maker.jpg

Tenth Anniversary

Title
Tenth Anniversary(Series of 3)
Technique
Etching, Aquatint, Chine-Colle
Paper
BFK Rives Cream
Year
2018
Location
Athens, GA
Plate Size
8'' by 13''

2018 is my grandpa’s tenth death anniversary. In memory of him, this series of etching prints’ goal is to recall the precious juvenile time, understand the anthropology of childhood and discover the influence of early education on artistic and emotional expressions.  

As the years came by, the sorrows of losing a loved one died down and transferred to one kind of inspiration. I found that my grandpa, my main childhood educator, has appeared in my artwork as a guidance and core spirit. 

 

In the Tenth Anniversary series, the bird market, pet fish stores, and narcissus flowers in a pot for Chinese New Year represent the remarkable highlight of my childhood memory. One thing they had in commons is that they all disappeared in my hometown as the renovation of the city and the loss of the audience segment in the fast-growing economic market.

 

I placed a tiny version of myself in the print, as my imagination of childhood stay in the specific scenario, but I am trapped as well because the physical construction and person vanishes and I lost the ability to create new memories with them. The only way to preserve the memory is to input the emotions in creativity and have them live in literature, artwork, and music. Memories never die as someone remembers. 

Tenth-Anniversary-1.jpg
Tenth-Anniversary-2.jpg
Tenth-Anniversary-3.jpg

Pot of Magic

Title
Pot of Magic
Technique
Two Plates Etching
Paper
BFK Rives White
Year
2018
Location
Athens, GA
Plate Size
5'' by 8''

Born into a traditional Cantonese family, my maternal grandfather was a Chinese medicine doctor before he retired. I grew up in a family that cooked with all kinds of Chinese herbs in daily cuisine.

 

Chinese herbs are magical to me, especially when I had a sore throat. Mom always gave me a bowl of Chinese medicine that was boiled overnight to get that dark colors of distillate of herbs, and magically my sore throat was cured.   

 

In this project experimenting with colors and lines, I made two etching plate–one as the background plate, one as the key plate. I selected several kinds of herbs that our family used on a daily basis for the key plate and portrait their cell pattern under the microscope as a background. I hope both of them created a visual harmony between colors and lines.

Pot-of-Magic-Green.jpg
Pot-of-Magic-2.jpg
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