This series of mixed media collages was created using images that I photographed around the city of Portland and surrounding areas, combined with other media such as paper, charcoal, pastel, crayon and acrylic paint to add variety, texture, color to the painting to enhance the user experience.The city of Portland is a bicycle-friendly city and combined with high density urban living, it provides me with the inspiration to want to create a series depicting such living style.Having lived in Beijing during my childhood years, it was painful for me to see the massive destruction of historic neighborhoods by the Chinese government in the name of progress. Hutong were narrow alleys formed by connecting traditional courtyard houses called siheyuan, some from as early as the 15th century. The word Hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods. My Hutong collage was created partly to illustrate the vibrant social life existed among the narrow streets and at the same time, act as my protest piece on the destruction of such historic neighborhoods. |
