Concentration Self Portrait - Large Canvas - Complete!

For my concentration, I have chosen to explore how Chinese-Canadians fit in the Canadian mosaic cultural model. Many dual cultured students may feel as if there are two sides of their identity, each clashing inside of them. I drew on my personal experiences as a Chinese born Canadian to develop this concept and is also a way for me to solidify my feelings to properly address them. What resulted is my capstone piece- a self portrait of myself wrapped around a dragon with the cityscape of Vancouver hovering on top of my chest. The purpose of this piece is to physically bring together my two identities so they are no longer disjointed, but actually whole.

This is on a large canvas and the sheer size of it gives it the impact that I needed this capstone piece to have. I started with a light layer, using a large brush to slowly start creating the base. I left strokes flying off the canvas and ending in semi-random places. The background has movement which is in contrast to the steadfast self portrait figure. I left some of the white from the canvas peeking through to emphasize the movement and blending. The mountains and cityscape served to provide context to the place figuratively and literally in my core- Vancouver. The previous pieces in my concentration give the background needed to fully understand this piece. The dragon motif, my zodiac, was introduced in the Constellation embroidery piece. The cityscape was introduced in the "Two Worlds" acrylic piece. Intertwined are the common symbols I used to illustrate the unity of two cultures.

The greatest challenge I had was the dragon's expression. It needed to be stern, but not angry. It had to be noble, but not stoic. It took many attempts but I finally managed to figure out the eye in relation to the mouth. It's a mythical creature with many interpretations, which made it difficult to capture its characteristics without reference.