Still Joy

“Still Joy” is my mixed media artwork of my mother, whom I admire for her hope and cheerfulness despite extreme difficulties while raising me. In 2008, she and my father moved from China into a cozy apartment in Savannah, Georgia. She was the housewife and maintained everything while employment consumed almost the entirety of my father’s life. Sleepless nights were spent on labor as a maid, mother, wife, chef, fixer, driver, and more, toiling as much as someone with a job, if not harder, just without pay. In the coming years, ups and downs disturbed our family and financial position before succeeding in creating a stable condition in the Bay Area. Yet when I walk in the door or call out “Mom,” the first expression on my mother’s face is the bright smile captured in the artwork. She maintains her optimistic, childish spirit — I used to scorn it, but now I recognize that it drives her persistence, endurance of struggles, and gratitude for the assets we have.