A visual representation of "Mother and Child" by Jennifer Wong
SO Ching Lam
Shung Tak Catholic English College
My work is inspired by Jennifer Wong’s poem ‘Mother and Child’.
I tried to capture the love and care of a mother for her child by depicting different scenes in the poem, like the mother using her palm leaf fan to lull the child to sleep, steaming the fish to perfection, and the child playing on the swing.
When I was creating this artwork, I imagined myself as one of the main characters in the painting and my childhood memories of my grandmother recurred, reminding me of the love, warmth and life lessons she had given me.
I applied dividing composition to visualise different scenes as fading memories.
With her mother’s care and love, the little girl is growing into an independent adult who is about to leave her mother, but is still well-connected with her mother because of the close bond between them.
I have chosen warm earth tone colours to create an atmosphere of love and care, and highlight the loving relationship between the mother and the daughter.
Mother and Child
You showed me how to tell
a fresh egg by its shell,
holding it up against the lamp.
You’d look up at the sky, predict
from the stillness of the air
when the rain would arrive.
The language of your dishes:
ginger and tangerine peel julienned
to the finest; fish steamed to perfection.
On long summer nights
you’d lull me to sleep
in the breeze of your palm leaf fan.
Even caning, when it happened,
was a way of loving despite the hurt.
It has made me a braver girl.
And that first time I stood on the swing,
facing the wind, flying forward,
seeing the world with your help,
leaving but not leaving you.
Jennifer Wong
“Mother and Child” was published in Goldfish by Jennifer Wong, p.35. Copyrights © 2013 by Chameleon Press. Reprinted by permission of Chameleon Press.