‘The Places We’re From’ : Series 1
The ‘We Are From’ Collection is a growing series of illustrations inspired by the ideas and places that make us unique. Through life, we grow to become an accumulation of all our closest surroundings—people, things, habits, language, smells, tastes, colours…the list is never-ending. Some are evident from the surface, others we may only discover or accept later in our lives.
Places can indicate a physical location such as a city, a specific landmark, an intersection of streets, a building. Or it may be a place you can no longer visit: warm afternoons in po-po’s kitchen, moments with our closest people, the bubble you enter once you crack open your favourite book or when you step foot back into your home country.
Those of us who are members of a cultural diaspora may know well that these discoveries are complex. At times, they are even difficult and conflicting. Drawn from my own story as a 1st-generation Chinese Canadian, ‘The Places’ piece features botanicals of eastern Asia: peonies, chrysanthemum, orchids. These are symbolic flowers in Chinese culture and are each nostalgic to the places and experiences of my childhood.
In my ‘Places’ flatlay, you’ll find some unique objects. Some are everyday items and others are kept for occasions.
Clockwise rom the top left: My late grandfather’s Chinese ink box, stone carved name stamp, bubble tea straw, chopsticks, ‘training chopsticks’ for kids, mandarin orange, red zipper pouch used to gift jewellery on special occasions, green patterned box for name stamp—a typical pattern seen on art storage boxes.
This collection encourages; a reflection of our many physical and emotional roots, a nostalgia of people, places, scents, words and textures, no matter how fleeting the memory, and a comfort to one’s inner child to know your world that was, has changed.
Each item is accompanied by a Story Card, unique to each collection. “The Places We Are From” emboldens that though we are budded from our roots, we continue to grow upwards and away to create our own strength and realities.