Vanitas 31 "The Call"

The piece I finished earlier this year (before I finished "Spring") but did not have a chance to share online. I had to wait until the show with this piece being part of was officially advertised on social media. It is "Vanitas 31" and subtitled "The Call". I came up with the concept and produced this drawing after receiving an invitation from Beautiful Bizarre Magazine to exhibit my work in their upcoming group show called "Halcyon Days". The show is going to take place in November 2022 at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, California. The theme of the exhibition is longing for long-gone happier and more peaceful days. I intended this piece to talk about a kind of call to action, hence the title "The Call". The action it is suggesting is not a violent upheaval but rather a personal imaginative kind. My model is about to release her paper plane. She doesn't know where it is going, but wishes it will reach its right destination, a happier place, past or future. The color of the plane reflects the blue of the skies in the happier times.

Looking back, I think I was subconsciously influenced by the January 6th insurrection last year and what happened afterwards. Watching those right wing extremists storming the Capital building and seeing people getting beat up and killed on the screen disturbed me tremendously and I was also infuriated when some people even sympathized with those behaviors.

I was listening to Mal Waldron's "The Call" when I was working on this drawing coincidentally. It is a dark brooding tune and reflected my emotional state at the time. And I thought the title perfectly fit the theme of the piece.