Today, as I was spending time with my parents, I realised how long running parenting goes. As much as I am now a father myself, my mother and father still mother and father me in their ways. As my parents do this to me, their parents would still do this to them, even if they might not agree with it.
It made me think of our approaches in life. Especially in Asian culture, we make a lot of choices based on our parents influence. The work I do today is shaped by my mother directly; she served on the management team for a period of time. But where does my own choice start, and where does their parenting influence end?
This line will always be in question: what was in our own nature, and what was in our nurture? In creativity, our influences push and direct us in many ways. Modern art derives so much abstract influence from everything else, but if we think about those who had made a huge impact, they’ve always drawn from childhood and familial influences one way or another.
I don’t know the exact lines of influence drawn in my creative work, but I know the boundaries set in: no profanity, no nudity, etc,. Simple ones, but it’s made me have to think very creatively about how I want to draw attention, and how I want to make a clever statement.
I’ve also wanted to make a lot more statements about the world around me. Perhaps originating from the amount of books my parents encouraged me to read, along with the worldviews of society and Christianity.
But I do choose to create the work the way I have. Maybe that’s where my own influence starts.
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