Artist Links

Yoskay Yamamoto

Ricardo recommended that I look at this artist because of his color palettes. His work is like a fusion of Japanese print tradition and American pop art illustration.

Bovey Lee

Bovey uses tradition of paper cutting to illustrate new narratives. Influences from a wide range - contemporary media, Eastern tradition, decorative tradition, folk art, and more.

Shino Soma

Shino Soma's work is about human connection and history. Recently, her focus is centered around the relationship between being an individual and being part of a collective family unit. Her work references her own childhood memories, post-war Japanese culture, woodblock tradition, and more.

photo collecting

grandpa and grandma (dad's)

my aunts, uncle, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa (mom's)

tiffany

mom

mom and grandma

mom and dad

grandmas

I was much closer to my mom's mom than my dad's mom. I was far away from both of them. The only thing I felt connected me to my grandmothers was eating "grandma's home cooking". My mom learned how to cook from grandma, so it was like I grew up eating my grandma's food. And maybe her mom's and her grandma's too. My dad's mom lived on the other side of the country. Whenever she came to visit or whenever we were visiting her, she made sure to have plenty to feed us to make up for lost time.

Neither of them could speak more than "hello" and "thank you". They could barely pronounce my name. I never had a conversation with either of my grandmas. I think they always saw me as a child.

In the ICU, my grandma was hallucinating. She kept telling my mom, in Vietnamese, "make sure Andrew and Christina get their dinner".

The last time I saw my dad's mom, she was completely coherent. All she wanted to say (translated to us) was to do well in school and make her proud.

Somewhere between strangers and family. I'll never make them proud.

tiffany

I always thought she cared more about me than my other aunts did. Everyone says she's the nurturer of the family, so I guess that at the time, it made sense for her to treat me like I was her own.

He didn't support her or their two daughters in any way. He would never be around to take care of them and he wasn't holding any sort of stable job. My family encouraged Tiffany to leave him. But she never did. She never could.

We were driving in the car, just me and her. She says, "Never love someone you fight with. Things will only get worse when you get married." My mom told me the same thing, but more threateningly. She said that she was starting to see Tiffany in me. She said that I can't let my emotions or love get in the way of seeing clearly.

mom

She probably thinks I should be more like her. My aunts say my mom was the artistic one. Also the most social (if you know what I mean). She was the first to marry and the only one who doesn't live in Houston. She started college majoring in art and then quickly changed to accounting.

I can't understand Vietnamese. Not even their tones gave me a clue. Maybe the look on their faces. I asked my aunt and she told me that my grandma was telling my mom that she was too old and too fat to be wearing what she was wearing.