by Sofie-An Nguyen
I don’t think I have ever seen artwork of an Asian person who wasn’t a traditional or historical figure, like a geisha or the buddha. To add something that I believed was currently missing from this collection, I settled on creating a portrait of something–or rather, someone– I had never seen in visual art: an Asian child. Surrounded by foliage, this nameless child of ambiguous Asian descent stands alone. Wearing a baggy sweatshirt and sporting long locks of straight black hair, she looks off to the side at whatever has caught her attention. Relaxed, she simply turns her head and forms the slightest of facial expressions, as if to ask, “What are you doing here?” or “Who are you?” As viewers look on, they will never know what she is glancing at, but the gleam in her eyes compels them to wonder. I used charcoal, a messy medium of blacks, whites, and grays, to create a stark contrast between this character and her environment. As I worked, the color and intensity of the sticks smeared, faded, and smudged in the progression of the piece. In the end, she is the center of our focus.