the warmth of cool kids

oil on masonite, 2017

This series of works examines the diversity of biracial and multiracial youth. As a mixed race person- half Vietnamese, half white- representation for marginalized people is something I think about on a daily basis. I wanted to focus on the individuality within diversity, paying close attention to features that make a person unique. This idea also translated heavily into my use of color; in order to capture the essence of members of my community, I wanted to bring out the wide array of colors that I saw reflected in their skin tones. I was heavily inspired on this end by Aliza Nisenbaum’s work, where she seems to take the unexpected colors present in flesh tones and pulls them to the extreme.