I Am American

Acrylic Paint
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Jan 2010

          This pieces' assignment was to respond to culture shock and when I have experienced it in my life. I chose to do a personal example. I am adopted from South Korea and often find myself forgetting that I'm a different ethnicity than all of my friends. It's not that I'm neglecting or ashamed of my culture, but since I wasn't raised in South Korea, my heritage and culture is different than it would have been if I were raised there. I used this idea to focus on the idea of losing culture and heritage as generations pass, such as religion, traditions, or in my case becoming "Americanized". Since I was raised in America, my clothes, my hairstyle, and my make-up is based on American trends, which strongly contrasts against the traditional Korean dress and style. I researched traditional Korean culture and dress and used the idea of mirrors reflecting what one normally doesn't see.