The work was inspired by one of Marc Chagall's paintings.  I tried to put myself (symbolically and not in physical form) in a foreign country turning into the village I now live in.  Mother Earth hands me the branch that grows in me with golden branches and leaves and I become transformed and immersed into the village. If you look at the hands, they are not the same.  The one touching my face is mine but the other hand is not.

Acrylic on Canvas

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush

Rising sea level, the most catastrophic disaster humankind is facing, is not natural but human made.  Ophelia, a famous victim of manipulating her own lover, look brutally alike. Swallowed up by water all the beautiful things we created is a suicide indeed.

The Book of Unknown Americans
by Cristina Henríquez

Alma, who came to America leaving everything behind and being vulnerable, reminded me of myself as a new bride from Korea.  Having left Korea for the first time, I felt like a toddler learning to walk and talk.  Geum Jool means "golden string" in Korean and traditionally represents an arrival of a newborn in a home. The portrait of myself in a traditional Korean wedding gown with geum jool symbolizes myself being reborn as an American through marriage.

Acrylic on canvas 

Acrylic on canvas 

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas

The woman's name is Iris, goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of the gods from Greek mythology. She is holding a small pot with an iris bulb inside, waiting to sprout. She has high hopes that it is going to bloom into an extraordinary flower in spring - bigger, prettier than ever before. She is waiting without knowing that she is turning into a flower. All the colors of the rainbow are mixing together and slowly transforming from pitch black. Her face transforms into a colorful iris flower petal and her body to leaves and stem.

She no longer has to wait for spring.

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas

Charcoal and Colour Pencil on Paper

Charcoal on Paper

Charcoal and Colour Pencil on Paper

Charcoal on Paper

Charcoal on Paper

Charcoal on Paper