Mother + Daughter

My relationship with my mom feels alien sometimes, since we come from different worlds. As a second gen immigrant, my culture is a hybrid between my parents’s native one and my Western environment.

This diptych represents my mom and I relearning our relationship, and defining what ours looks like. Maybe some of you have always been close with your mothers, but for me the stitches on the canvas symbolize us coming together after feeling alienated from our differences.

The design on two pieces is the same, and so is the colour palette. However the stitching and colour placement vary. One face is my mom and one is a self-portrait in relation to the bond. One tear is made up of blood and sacrifice for survival and the other is a different kind of pain, one that yearns to live and to be understood.

I think there will always be distance between us, some things that we cannot fully comprehend nor communicate to each other. I’m learning that thats okay. For now, I’m happy to have made progress and I hope to stitch up more areas.

(Mother + Daughter, Huney, Mixed Media on a 20 x 24 canvas, 2020)