On meeting my mother

Earlier this year I posted images of the new work I made to begin my own story.

Around the same time I was asked by Banana writers to write a piece about meeting my birth mother.  As an asian and transracial adoptee, I realise that this is unusual - the luck of being born in a country with diligent record keeping and being given the opportunity to look.

I have followed a number of blogs over the years and read a lot of personal stories from transracial adoptees.  The resounding sadness I sense is from people feeling like an outsider for all or much of their lives and the knowledge that due to their own circumstances, the chance of finding their own birth mother is slim.

My story is here.  If anything, I wanted to tell these people what happened to me - I was lucky, and yes, finding my birth mother changed my life in such a positive way I am truly thankful.

Upcycled table

A lot of the items in my home have been found on the side of the road, in skips or come from charity stores.  I try not to bring every piece of trash-treasure home but one Sunday, while walking home from the city I came across this old little table/stool.  I bought it home, put putty in some holes and sanded it

Then painted it with some leftover sample housepaint I had...

Then put some waterbased oil paints and some ink/watercolours onto it to achieve the specific blue I wanted...

...and then sanded it with some rough sandpaper to get some texture and expose a little bit of wood on the edges...

then I started cutting out pieces of coloured paper to make a little floral tableaux.

Next thing to do is the table sides and varnish it to seal it all in.