Grandma Mary with Text:
For this project, I created a portrait of my 97 year old Korean grandmother
(Mary) as a gift for her. The portrait is 11” x 16” and created in Adobe Illustrator.
A while ago, my grandmother gave an oral history of her life. Here is the excerpt I used:
My name is Mary. I was born March 25, 1917 on Kihei, Maui. My father’s name was Lee Chow Sung. My mother’s name was Chur Lee. I had two sisters, Maruda and Puni. I had two brothers, John and Sam. My mom came as a picture bride and I can’t remember her too well because she died in childbirth when I was five years old. My father gave the baby away to a childless couple, who took the baby back to Korea. We grew up on a plantation. We had a tough life. We worked in the cane fields. We were so poor. We didn’t have a nickel for school lunch. We used to bring kimchi and we’d stink up the whole school. I wonder how we got by. We used to carry it in a tin bucket. We hung our bags outside in the hallway. In those days everything was safe. Nobody would steal. Those were the days. I wouldn’t trade my childhood.
Enjoy
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