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The inspiration for this painting is pretty self-explanatory, auspiciously commemorating mine and Lily’s marriage. But how I derived the idea for the composition was uncovered in a small city in the middle of Vietnam, called Hue.
Living in China, you become accustomed to the national holidays of the country (which are very different from the traditions of the west). One of China’s major annual holidays happens during the first 7 days of October (called ‘国庆节 guo qing jie’; ‘the National Holiday’; or simply ‘the October Holiday’), which celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Every year during this time (because the entire country has the seven consecutive days vacation) Lily and I would plan trips to places we hadn’t traveled to, and in 2018 we planned a trip to Hue, Vietnam to visit a friend.
When we arrived, our friend, Ha Phuong, had surprisingly arranged a photographer to take engagement pictures for us as a wedding gift. We had brought our wedding clothes with us because we were going to take a few pictures anyway on our own, but It was definitely an experience to be able to do this in such a quant traditional city in the heart of Vietnam around its historical palaces.
After taking pictures at different places throughout the city I began to formulate ideas for a wedding painting. We ended the photoshoot at an area toward the south gate of the Hue Imperial Citadel (where the central government used to reside before the rise of communism in Vietnam in 1945). We had taken pictures at a coffee shop (part of the south gate that was converted into a coffee shop) where I asked the photographer to take pictures of Lily and me sitting at either end of a long table in the courtyard with out hands held out appearing to hold something. This setting and vibe of this old city is what helped me form the composition of ‘Unite’.
A month after returning from our trip in Vietnam I began working on the process of this painting. Working in the studio space at my school’s art center was the best place for creating this painting because of its large size (4.5ft x 7.5ft).
1) I began by first choosing the composition of the work. The photographer had taken roughly 30 pictures, so after narrowing down the best 4 images it came to choosing the right angle. After considering the message of the painting (e.g. “represent an equal partnership, which consists of both Chinese and Western cultural elements”), I considered the word “equal” to connect visually to “symmetrical”. So I chose to use a symmetrical balance in the composition. I also felt the image that has a lower horizon line (where the viewer is lower, looking up at the 2 figures) worked because it made the 2 figures feel more dominate in the composition.
2) I stretched a large canvas and prepped it with gesso. After sketching a rough contour of the figures and objects to the surface of the canvas with vine charcoal, I begin painting a very thin base coat to form substance and to be able to build texture and detail on. Oil painting is definitely a time-consuming process because of the drying times for certain layers.
3) After finishing the painting I let it dry for close to a month in the upper studio area in the art center at my school. This later was removed from the wooden stretcher and transported to the United States to be displayed at our wedding reception.
After having given the painting ample time to dry, I carefully removed it from the wooden stretcher frame and rolled the painting up and put it in a large tube that I had to make. During my trip back to the United States during the summer of 2019, I brought the painting back with me (because of its awkward size, it counted as a check bag when I was flying back).
I re-built the wooden stretcher frame and re-stretched the painting. This is something you can do with oil and acrylic paintings that are painted on canvas, only if the painting has not been varnished (otherwise the varnish would chip off, chipping off part of the paint as well).
‘Unite’ was displayed at our wedding reception that we had in the United States for those that were unable to attend our wedding in Chengdu, China (January 2019).
I also created 2 more compositions that fit with the 2 bedrooms in this apartment. I chose to use more of a complementary color scheme for these 2 pieces, pulling from the color of the bed sheets and pillows. Because the tones of the rooms are mostly monochromatic, the use of a few bright colors makes paintings very vibrant within the interior of the rooms.
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