Sure, it’s a fanfic (or fan “fiction,” but you probably knew that). The content doesn’t have anything to do with my personal life. However, the importance of this picture is in the importance of art. Art would not exist unless people had some kind of passion, some kind of reason, for creating it in the first place. Some people are inspired to speak about their society or their generation or their home. Some people are depressed or angry and need an outlet for their emotions. For me, art was confirmation of existence. I was no football player, no math wiz, no Science Fair champ, heck I wasn’t even that good at sitting through a book. I was a gamer and an anime nerd. I couldn’t beat anyone at debate, but I could beat them at Mario Kart without a drop of sweat seeping through my palms and onto the controller. I couldn’t memorize the U.S. presidents, but I could tell you every Hokage to ever protect Konohagakure in the manga Naruto. Art was my first school subject to give academia a purpose. How could drawing my favorite characters from a manga or anime or video game possibly have any merit in school – much less earn me A’s? Art, for me, began with doodling in class in elementary; eventually, it became my best subject. I still didn’t know much about art history, but as far as colors and contrast and technique – I just got better and better.
The reason I think “American-born Chinese” makes a good choice for our unit on power is because art empowers the artist, and I love that this author not only writes, but draws and publishes critically acclaimed graphic novels about struggles with race. To me, struggles of race go hand-in-hand with struggles of power. It’s all about power. I have only just started “American-born Chinese,” but I love the art style and I love the fact that he chose the graphic novel form and was successful with it. Further on down the road, I discovered I was a pretty decent writer too. It’s actually my dream to create graphic novels kinda like this. I prefer the traditional manga style (which is actually Japanese), but the Americanization of the art seems compatible with the theme of the novel (American-born).
Tye-Dyed Pixels 