The Bifecta Artist & Her Tiny Hands

By -

    As a sort of part two to my last article, I wanted to share another artist that I think has done incredible work for women and for many minorities. Mei Chen called herself the “bifecta” artist, because she is bilingual, bipolar, and bisexual. She uses her intersectionality in her art to create earrings made of tiny handcrafted hands. The hands are made with three different skin tones so that everyone could have something that looks like it was made for them, which is something many creators and companies gloss over or do inadequately. She also includes painted nails that are colors of certain pride flags and hands holding different items or positioned in different ways that add to the message of the piece.

    She explains that the reason for  choosing hands for her art was that “humans are built to be able to tell if something is actually human or not and [she] thinks the best kind of art is when you can truly trick the human eye. Hands are so expressive and so incredibly human, there are so many options!”





    One of my favorite pieces that she has made is called, “Remember to Take Your Meds!” It showcases two tiny hands of color holding two medications. The medications were replicas of medications the artist herself takes for her bipolar disorder. “When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I had to come to terms with the fact that I would be taking medication for the rest of my life. My medication saved my life more than any amount of therapy and support ever could so I wanted to normalize taking them instead of demonizing myself for needing them,” Chen said.


    She also discussed mental health being taboo in many cultures, so I especially appreciate these particular earrings showcasing colored skin for this piece. I personally have a similar skin tone to the piece and I am also bipolar, so this piece to me meant representation for something I had not seen represented before. Similar to what she discussed about Asian cultures not always being understanding of mental illness, Arab culture has the same issue, so I have often had a difficult time reconciling my culture and my mental health. I think this piece particularly being a person of color with mental illness is a major and important statement that meant a great deal to me, and likely many others as well.


    I also really appreciate her making medications into something beautiful and I think it is an incredible step towards normalizing mental health care. The conversation about mental health has grown in recent years to allow people to discuss their experiences, their illnesses, and their treatments, but it is still not completely acceptable to talk about certain illnesses or how necessary medications may be. This piece is specifically about the artist’s bipolar disorder, a disorder that is often depicted as violent or insane, and I think it is important to have representation of that illness that is gentle and beautiful rather than the typical ways it is portrayed. In addition, medications are still things that are often not seen as necessary when it comes to mental health, so it is nice seeing representation of treatment in a way that is not judgmental and does not discredit the value and necessity of medication for mental health.


    All of her work, and particularly this piece, showcase so much honesty and raw emotion and so much potential for humanity to change and accept differences. The artist states, “I think that being honest with myself and being honest with the people who support me shows them that it’s okay to be themselves because my art reflects that.” She is truly very effective in doing that, so I wanted to share her work here. She is currently starting a shop and the proceeds go to different charities depending on the piece. Her website that is soon to include her shop can be found at https://www.meichenartist.com/about.


sources:

https://www.meichenartist.com/about

https://www.outfrontmagazine.com/mei-chen-the-art-of-tiny-hands-and-big-concepts/

https://www.instagram.com/meichenartist/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNU0MYnjHKM/



⁣

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review

By -
Film Review: Mean Girls Written by Elizabeth Nesbitt This film was written by Tina Frey and Rosalind Wiseman in 2004. This movie deals with several girl issues family, friendships, body image and popularity. The movie begins with Cady played by Lindsay Lohan who had been home schooled in Africa. Her family moved to America in her senior year where she had to attend public high school. When Cady starts school she knows nothing about cliques. The first friends Cady encounters are known as the “Artsy freaks.” Cady then meets the “Plastics” a group of popular, gossiping, shopping, glamorous girls who see themselves as inferior to the other girls in school. Cady starts hanging out with the plastics, when she is really spying for her artsy freak friends. In Africa Cady had a good relationship with her parents and they enjoyed spending time together. Moving to America and attending public school Cady violates her parents trust by lying and having parties. Cady transforms into a plastic, fake...
Read more

Maiden, Mother and Crone by Vianny Nunez

By -
Image
  Maiden   Soft, sweet , and silent.   She is youthful , desired by all.    She wears long, beautiful gowns. Awaiting the hand of someone who’s strong and tall.   “A lady only speaks when spoken to.”   Words that have worn her ears before she could lace her own shoes.    “ Don’t eat so much, a lady must always watch her figure.”      The maiden’s first trigger.    You see, she’s been trained and groomed to fit the needs of men.   Before she could even reach the age of ten.    Men are blessed with strength and glor y when they'r e born.    Women? We’re cursed with beauty and immediate scorn.   You want us to fit perfectly into your ideals.    But we’d rather swim with eels.    There is more to her than what you can see.   Have you even asked about her hobbies?   Yes, she can cook and clean,    but she can also create literary scenes ....
Read more

Book Review - Dear Diary

By -
I'm not really sure exactly how I felt about Dear Diary. The book is about the life of Lesley Arfin, a girl from Long Island who goes through all the things that most teenage girls go through, but who also eventually becomes a heroin addict, and struggles to get clean. One thing that I really did like about this book was the way that it was written. The book is actually diary excerpts from Lesley's diary, supplemented with updates by Lesley and interviews with the people she wrote about in the diary entries. The way that Lesley writes make her seem very approachable, like someone you would want to be friends with. I really loved how she would give updates to explain things from her diary and I thought it was awesome how she tracked down and interviewed the people that she discussed in the diary. In one instance she was able to find out that the reason that she lost a once dear friend was because their fathers had an issue that Lesley had no idea about (27-28). She was even able...
Read more