Alice's Introduction

I am legally blind and love to draw. How does that work? Well, usually I draw with the assistance of an extremely powerful electronic magnifier simply known as a CCTV and work on a piece of the picture at a time. While this means it may take me a long time to complete even a small piece, I have found that it also grants me the ability to include a great amount of detail. Then, of course, there is the beauty of computer graphics programs where images can be enlarged. I still don’t know if what I see is exactly what other people see when they look at my art—I’ve had someone tell me she liked how so and so part of a picture was green and I was standing there going ‘What? Green? Where?’—but then again, I’m not sure it’s possible for anyone to see exactly what another does. That is, after all, one thing that makes the world amazing.

Being legally blind means most of my work comes out of my imagination. I’ve always loved the fantastical. I grew up on Chinese folk tales and Greek mythology and other such tales where things are often not as they seem. Some say fantasy has no bearing on real life because it is, by definition, a figment of the imagination, but I think truth may come in many shapes and reality is really what we make it out to be.

In my current work, I seek to celebrate the things that shape us—things that should be honored and remembered for the impact they have on our lives. For me, one of the greatest of these forces has always been the myths and stories that embody the values and beliefs of our forbearers which still influence our thoughts today. They were not only fun but taught me about my parents’ homeland. Many of these teachings have stayed with me along with a continued love for those stories and a wish that I could share them with others. Stories are an everlasting force that can both change with the times and still carry the essence of the ideas that bore them.

To see some of my work, place visit my personal gallery at
https://sites.google.com/site/inkcoloredskies/ or my FAA profile at

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/alice-chen.html.