hello, this is a scholarship essay, to describe how having a multicultural background influences my art/goals and experience.
I have no one I know to proofread it for me so i thought I'd put it on here to see if anyone could help
thanks!
Hello and Zaijian (multicultural essay)
When I was three, I left an island once called Formosa and traveled with my family to the Empire where the sun never sets. The four years that I spent there influenced me greatly, I was quickly adopting a new language when not even being familiar with my own. I stood in old churches and listened to hymns echoing, I stared up at stain glass windows as the story of christ was explained to me. The people were friendly, they hugged and kissed each other a lot, they taught me taught how to bake potatoes, play cats cradle and football. At school the teacher encouraged questions, we did many experiments, we made a volcano, we buried a pencil for a month and mixed tissue in water until it disappeared. I began drawing the things I saw: two vikings I met at school, bracelets that I made for Diwali at a local temple, mark-making, and queen Amidala from Star wars. My mother told me about Taiwan, how my grandmother was living there, I pictured a gentle looking british old woman holding homemade cookies. I found myself interested in different cultures, especially ancient cultures, that was the first time I decided what I wanted to be: An archeologist.
At seven I returned to my homeland, the language that I once knew have become symbols that I no longer recognize. The people were also friendly, though I did not know what they were saying and they looked quite startled when I hugged them. I tried to study in a local school, the teacher said I was a problem because I asked too much questions, we stared blankly at our books, then at the blackboard, then back at our books. I felt weird that I needed to bow at my teacher, I felt horrified when my teacher started to hit a student with "the hand of love" as they called it. My grandmother ended up to be an angry-looking short asian woman, with endless wrinkles on her face, she wore cheap white and blue flip-flops and tried to spank me with a chinese dictionary. Days passed and I started learning the story behind every chinese character, watched my first Peking opera, lit my first incense in a local temple, danced and singed with the aboriginals and for the sake for communicating with my grandmother learned Taiwanese (we get along quite well now, she is a master at majiong). My drawings started to change, white and red Peking opera masks started to appear, I became in love with the style of Lin Feng Mian, his way of using simple and curvy lines to draw women. When I entered an American high school in Taipei I came in touch with Norman Rockwell, Brian froud and Shaun Tan. I dived straight into the world of concept art and picture books, I started combining the cultures I know into a new culture that existed many years ago in my world.
How was my artwork influenced? At first I just drew whatever I saw: people on train rides and ancient artifacts that I would like to dig up someday, but after seeing the drawings of John foster, Kent Williams and Allan lee, I wanted to combine both of the cultures that I've came in touch with, combining patterns, illustrating the stories that I've heard. Instead of just noticing the differences between cultures, I began finding similarities, the strokes of chinese calligraphy and western calligraphy, ink paintings and water colour and finally adding what I've felt and lived into my paintings.
I have no one I know to proofread it for me so i thought I'd put it on here to see if anyone could help
thanks!
Hello and Zaijian (multicultural essay)
When I was three, I left an island once called Formosa and traveled with my family to the Empire where the sun never sets. The four years that I spent there influenced me greatly, I was quickly adopting a new language when not even being familiar with my own. I stood in old churches and listened to hymns echoing, I stared up at stain glass windows as the story of christ was explained to me. The people were friendly, they hugged and kissed each other a lot, they taught me taught how to bake potatoes, play cats cradle and football. At school the teacher encouraged questions, we did many experiments, we made a volcano, we buried a pencil for a month and mixed tissue in water until it disappeared. I began drawing the things I saw: two vikings I met at school, bracelets that I made for Diwali at a local temple, mark-making, and queen Amidala from Star wars. My mother told me about Taiwan, how my grandmother was living there, I pictured a gentle looking british old woman holding homemade cookies. I found myself interested in different cultures, especially ancient cultures, that was the first time I decided what I wanted to be: An archeologist.
At seven I returned to my homeland, the language that I once knew have become symbols that I no longer recognize. The people were also friendly, though I did not know what they were saying and they looked quite startled when I hugged them. I tried to study in a local school, the teacher said I was a problem because I asked too much questions, we stared blankly at our books, then at the blackboard, then back at our books. I felt weird that I needed to bow at my teacher, I felt horrified when my teacher started to hit a student with "the hand of love" as they called it. My grandmother ended up to be an angry-looking short asian woman, with endless wrinkles on her face, she wore cheap white and blue flip-flops and tried to spank me with a chinese dictionary. Days passed and I started learning the story behind every chinese character, watched my first Peking opera, lit my first incense in a local temple, danced and singed with the aboriginals and for the sake for communicating with my grandmother learned Taiwanese (we get along quite well now, she is a master at majiong). My drawings started to change, white and red Peking opera masks started to appear, I became in love with the style of Lin Feng Mian, his way of using simple and curvy lines to draw women. When I entered an American high school in Taipei I came in touch with Norman Rockwell, Brian froud and Shaun Tan. I dived straight into the world of concept art and picture books, I started combining the cultures I know into a new culture that existed many years ago in my world.
How was my artwork influenced? At first I just drew whatever I saw: people on train rides and ancient artifacts that I would like to dig up someday, but after seeing the drawings of John foster, Kent Williams and Allan lee, I wanted to combine both of the cultures that I've came in touch with, combining patterns, illustrating the stories that I've heard. Instead of just noticing the differences between cultures, I began finding similarities, the strokes of chinese calligraphy and western calligraphy, ink paintings and water colour and finally adding what I've felt and lived into my paintings.
