Image Desc: Brightly colored mural depicting a girl listening to headphones and holding a cup of tea, while the rolling steam shows images of early Chinese immigrants arriving on ships and working on farms.

A community mural + brief history of Chinese-Americans on Whidbey Island

September 4, 2019

In more recent years, as I’ve learned more and more about the history of early Chinese-American immigrants to the States, I feel increasingly that those stories have largely been forgotten. While I had briefly learned about the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act in school, I never knew about the riots where residents violently forced Chinese workers out of cities (Seattle and Tacoma had some of the worst ones) or that Chinatowns were created as a way of protecting people from the violent racism beyond their boundaries. I wanted to find a way to talk about it and start conversations about it.

When I was brought on to the Allgire Project by the (amazing!) team at Overall Creative, they asked if I had any ideas about what I could design that would tie into the local history of the mural site at Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. I discovered quickly that the there had been many Chinese immigrants who lived there during the 1880’s, working on potato farms and in fisheries. Eventually, as anti-Chinese sentiment grew, they were forced out by mob violence, when other local residents dynamited Chinese potato patches.

Through the design, I wanted to show the connection of Chinese-Americans today to those early stories. The main figure is a girl of today, but she’s tied to the stories of those who came before her in the scenes depicted in the rolling steam of her cup of tea.

Just a few of our amazing community volunteers who helped make this possible!

I was so thrilled to get to create this piece and reference a piece of history that I think has mostly been lost there. On the first day of painting, people of all ages showed up to contribute their time and energy to seeing this come to life, and I’m so grateful for that. I hope that through art, we can continue to tell these stories.

Thank you to Sarah at the Allgire Project, Kathleen & Lina at Overall Creative, community donors, and all the wonderful community volunteers who helped paint the mural, for letting me share this story! (also thank you to my parents and Jay for graciously giving up part of the weekend to help me do this!)

Follow me: @novemberdays_ or fb.com/yvonnechanart

Utility Box Art - now on display in Renton!

July 3, 2019

It’s finally here! My first utility box wrap, designed for the Renton Arts Commission, was installed in June and seeing in person was so much fun! As someone who works digitally most of the time, a lot of my work never leaves my 13-inch computer screen - to see it beautifully printed in high-quality and 5 feet high was such a treat!

This was originally a design I made for the back of one of my business cards when I first started selling prints and exhibiting at art shows, so it has a special place in my heart. I’ve also been selling it as a print at art shows!

So many thanks to all the wonderful people at the Renton Arts Commission and City of Renton for supporting my work and giving my opportunity to share what I love!!

legit cannot contain my giddiness in this photo

My First Public Art Installation!

October 8, 2018

I get a little giddy every time I make prints of my digital art, because it’s always a different experience to physically hold it in your hands - and it’s EVEN better when it’s printed on large 4 ft panels and hung on the side of the street!

Earlier this year, I started working with the City of Renton on a public arts commission (shoutout to Jessie and Anthony who were amazing to work with!!!) to replace the existing designs in their original poster cases.

They asked me to create five illustrations that would represent different parts of the local arts community, unified by a visual theme, and replicable for the ten frames. In an earlier social media post, I wrote about the inspiration behind the works.

The inspiration for this series for the Renton Arts Commission was from reflecting on my first year of putting my art out into the world, and realizing what a transformative process it is for myself. A lot of my pieces are about feeling lost or alone - and in the process of making the work and sharing the work with other people, I realized I became less lost and less alone. The people and the kindness I’ve been met with because of the art has given me so much joy, inspiration, and humility.

The process of making art is transforms the artist. When I first received the brief for this project, I knew I wanted to show artists in each medium becoming empowered or changed by their art.

I went through with many iterations of each design and for a while I struggled with how much to stylize the images. The final product is far less realistic than the sketches I started out with - and it feels a lot more like me.

It’s honestly SO mind blowing to me that my art just gets to live somewhere in public for a long time! I hope that people will notice them and enjoy them in the community.

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If you’d like to check out the pieces, you can see them at the Renton Municipal Garage on South 2nd Street between Logan Ave & Burnett Ave!