Marissa Ponce

As a Filipina American, Asian culture has had a tremendous impact on my upbringing and how I view the world so for my series I examined how Asian culture influences myself and my loved ones living in the Bay Area today. With this I explored ideas like the effects of traditional Asian values on the identity of young Asian Americans and the sharing of Asian customs like food, dance, and pop culture with others.

Inspired by artists like Hung Liu and Frida Kahlo, I wanted to incorporate a lot of saturated colour, symbolism, and culture in my art. I also experimented with many textures like salt, glue, cardboard, tissue paper, fabric, and tinfoil. Often I practiced manipulating india ink in my work and many of my pieces I revised by collaging the focal points to change the compositions. Lastly I tried to fill most of the backgrounds with colours and imagery that would set a scene with a sense of depth and give more context to the works.