Departure and Transformation: 
a Story of [Im]Migration

People and animals have always needed to migrate, whether seasonally for food and water, or as one of my Chinese ancestors did 5 generations ago, leaving his home for a new country to escape war or famine, in search of a better life. He left China for Indonesia, while his descendant, my father, left Indonesia for Canada. 

My father arrived in Canada at a prosperous and optimistic time, in the 1950s. He was one of those accepted into a special foreign aid program offered by both Canada and Australia to educate the “best and brightest” students in developing countries. He chose Canada because it was the farthest from home. 

Chinese people have a long history of coming to Canada, helping to build this country, literally and figuratively, since at least the early 19th century. After the American and Canadian Gold Rushes, North America became known as “Gold Mountain” and many more Chinese migrants were attracted to this continent, full of hope probably, with little sense of the difficulties that faced them here.

My piece Departure and Transformation grew from contemplating the story of a particular woman in 19th century China. I imagined her packing her trunk: what could she could not bear to leave behind? What would she take to equip herself for her future life? And what did she think about as she prepared for the long sea voyage ahead (which would be spent in “Asian Steerage” class!) in order to marry a man she had never met, who was expecting her older, better-looking sister? 

Knowing she would never see home again, or the people she loved, or indeed everything she’d ever known, would this woman pack her altar figurines, especially the God of Wealth featured here? I have used that figurine as a representation of what she did pack, but also put it through a representation of the young woman’s journey, and the massive transformation she would have undergone in her new life.

Sorry I fell off my short-lived schedule of publishing every Sunday/Monday. I've been away teaching the lovely young students at Fleming College.

Teaching is a wonderful opportunity to refresh old skills... and discover how rusty I am!

It shouldn't take the imminent pressure of teaching drawing to get me back to simple forms of drawing, but it certainly is a strong motivator.

Drawing – of any kind – makes an excellent daily practice, keeping hand and eye tuned and in sync, getting the mind into an art space instead of a daily-busy-life space.

What role does drawing play in your work or life?