Aliens in Chinatown
Deric C.
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As a child, I walked through the streets of Oakland Chinatown. I see the laughing grandmas pulling their carts of produce. Grandpas smoking with their pals while playing traditional Chinese instruments. As a teen now, aliens have touched down and infiltrated the culture of Chinatown: the elderly have disappeared, shops have closed down, and my sense of understanding for the community I used to call home is lost. The traditionally designed dim sum restaurant on the corner of Franklin and 7th is what I am reminded of when I think of my Chinatown. Walking past it is like smelling warm flavors of immigration to a new land. This land that the restaurant is built on was claimed by us, to find a community from the home that is thousands of miles away. And today, on Webster and 11th, is an alien, foreign, not fitting in looking building full of people that pushed us out of their communities when we tried to give in to the inevitable feeling of assimilation, put on by the same people who kicked us out. Why have they come to our home?
Aliens in Chinatown, my digital art piece, is my visual thoughts of what is described above. Being my first digital art piece, I knew that the digital arts was a reign of freedom, I could draw anything. I had this picture of a towering apartment building across the street from what is my home, a reality that is Oakland Chinatown today. I spent a few hours learning the technology on Procreate. I eventually found comfort in the simplistic representation that the technical pens introduced. So, here is "Aliens in Chinatown."
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My brain is like hotpot broth that cooks many things, generate an intense flavors, and make people feel warm stomach feelings. To put this on a canvas creates feelings of tenderness, confusion when looking at the explosion of colors, or excitement when you hear about. My life has become hotpot.
