Quan Am, charcoal on paper, 17″X24″
I illustrated my pendant of Quan Am, the Vietnamese buddhist goddess of compassion, which I received in the summer of 2016. It belonged to my grandmother who has Alzheimer’s disease, and was given to me to be reminded of her. Though I have not had the necklace for a long period of time, I have many experiences and memories attached to it. It is a beautiful necklace which has earned me lots of compliments, but has also given me a lot of conflict. I chose to illustrate the pendant using distressed marks to represent the social and internal conflicts the necklace has brought me, as well as frustration about my grandmother’s disease. The strong nature of the marks also represent the aura of the necklace itself being that it is big and bright, and my grandmother’s personality: strong, and a little “flashy”. The floral-like markings I included represent the positive meaning of the necklace and good memories I associate with it, in contrast with the more negative ones. I wrote down a total of thirty two memories I associate with the pendant, as well as thirty two marks that represent my feelings toward and during the memories. I assembled the portrait using these marks I created, to make a collage of the memories.
The pendant itself:
Thirty two memories I associate with the pendant:
Thirty four markings that illustrate my feelings during those memories: