The seasons last long but sometimes they go by too quickly. You just need to treasure those moments.
Unity through paintings of bears
During these past few months, I did two paintings on pandas that were especially time-consuming. They were by no means simple as they were interesting. In my two paintings, there is the concept of unity. These two paintings show unity in two different ways; one with other nations and the other with our own people. The first painting was created for an art contest and was in second place, while the other was created because I had planned to do a sketch (See image below) first before painting the same image onto a canvas.
The first painting (See image below) depicts the images of a panda and polar bear walking to meet at the center. While the panda comes from its Chinese roots with their pandas with bamboo and mountains, the polar bear comes from the cold and ice. This picture was meant to symbolize the unity between the Asian and North American countries (Not being racist or anything, but the idea was in my head when I had first started on the piece). This basically means that the panda and polar bear are going to meet each other and live in peace despite their very different circumstances. Although the painting is simple and the meaning is very unifying, I feel that this painting has a very symbolic and peaceful feeling to it.
In the second painting (See image below), it is much more detailed than the first (See image above) and has a different meaning to the painting. While in the first, the meaning was international unity/diplomacy, this second painting represents unity amongst our own peoples. When I say: ‘our own peoples’; I don’t mean the Asians with other Asians or Europeans with Europeans, I mean to say that we should get along with our neighbours. Now, I don’t know if you know this already, but I live in Canada and I am a Canadian. So for me, this means that I should get along with my neighbours, despite our cultural differences.
Our world today is quite interconnected, and despite how you may feel about that, globalization has been going on for many years. So even if you live in Australia or let’s say… Greece, you will still have ties to other countries. For example, you could have relatives in North America, who have friends that have cousins in Asia who had school mates that are now your neighbour’s best friend. Whether you like it or not, our world is becoming a smaller place. With our everyday lives and we should just try to get along with our neighbours at home and international relations.
Ok, back to the pandas and panda and polar bear, which do you prefer? The pandas painting is more detailed and colored, while the panda and polar bear painting has a more unifying feeling. In the poll box below, vote for your favourite painting from among the two. I would love to hear from you guys and I really can’t wait to paint some more just so that I can show them off here on ‘valeriechoo.wordpress.com’! Don’t forget to tell other people about my blog and Thanks for reading!
Valerie Choo 