Stubborn is referenced from the ancient cave art that I encountered during my first history class in our university. They are very inspiring throughout the years, and even after centuries, people still learn about them. They are powerful image and communication tools back in the days. I tried to create a chaotic scene to show how it is very hard to remove the history of it. Cleaning supplies, hand on the right are not able to wipe them off. These arts are stubborn and preserved since long time ago. To better explain my idea, I tried to illustrate the round door as the entrance of a cave.
Freedom portrays us often preserve our emotions in diaries, same as the illustration above, shows that the character is free from interacting with her diary, staying in one of the safest places in her childhood, a bed fort.
Homesickness is metaphorically expressed through condiments landscape painting. Here, condiments are imagined as buildings in Hong Kong. I am constantly inspired by Hong Kong culture where people there use varieties of condiments to enrich the flavor of dishes. After moving into Canada, I can only get a taste of home by adding these preserved condiments into my dishes.
Nowadays, people usually tattoo themselves for remembrance purpose. Veronica signifies that the memory/event can last forever like a tattoo that can permanently stay on our body or be physically with us. Here in this illustration, this male is by his own at this imaginary land. His tattoos contribute a lot of meanings in this piece, like preserving the memories of the woman like what is tattooed on his body. He is having a sentimental moment while revisiting this place.
Family is illustrated from the parents’ perspective looking from above to a child’s funeral urn. From the gestures and storytelling, it communicates about the guilty feelings by the parents and portrays instability of their home. Funeral urns are commonly used to store and preserve the ashes. Here, I referenced to Chinese funeral urns design, where they are commonly made with white clay and blue paint. People can easily associate it with Chinese design.
Princess is referred from the red-brick New York apartment buildings. The robber outside is trying to break into the apartment. Taxidermies are used to preserve animal furs or bodies. Here, I am trying to show that loyalty of the dog named Princess is preserved through taxidermy.
When I research the background about Russian dolls, it shows that the last layer usually is a baby. They are made with many layers and each layer metaphorically mean to protect the baby by the mother. I took the idea of it and made it to Nesting by a Russian doll family. Their love and care is preserved in the nest/doll.
Fishy communicates about apathetic life style. Canned food that we consumed every day is boring and apathetic, like how we often anticipate canned goods as a way of survival only, it will be quickly translated as lack of care about what you eat. Many elements here are repetitive, same as the fish pattern on the table cloth, and the perspective, very direct, repetitive, straight-on, BORING.
Quilts are fabrics/old clothes that sewed together as a blanket. Some people use it to preserve smell/scent from people, especially when reusing old clothes. Son is an illustration that communicates sense of longing, how the mother has longed for the reunion with her son who are out of town for school.
In Affection, anthropomorphism is used to describe the emotions of the perfume bottles. They are being put in a love triangle situation. This illustration portrays the intimacy between the couple versus the lonely figure at the background, a very strong sense of affection. Perfume bottles are used to store specific scent, bottles that can preserve smell. However, these scents are not long-lasting, they will fade-away as time goes by. Again, we are trying to preserve intangible feelings in tangible things.
The Preserved
The Preserved is a series of editorial illustrations that imagines emotions pervaded objects to imply human desire on preserving intangible feelings in tangible things.
