Meera Huang

My works explores my identity of growing up Chinese American in the San Francisco Bay Area. I create paintings that bring up the emotions of nostalgia and the sentimental value of the subject.

My paintings feature objects, traditions and customs, and childhood memories. I work from references, using old pictures and objects around my house, and I take pictures of things that remind me of my heritage. When I first started, I was going to be as true to my references as possible, but as my work progressed I started to play around with colors. I toned down some colors, emphasized others, and completely changed some of them. I emphasize certain colors like red which symbolizes luck, joy, and happiness. For some of the paintings I painted everything besides the subject or the color of interest in grey scale. I also simplified the backgrounds and played around with the hazy borders of the paintings to bring forth memories and nostalgia. Through colors and choices of subjects, I investigate my childhood and strengthen my ties to my culture.