RETURN TO THEME

Roses I by Junnie Chup

Junnie Chup, “Roses I,” 2022, digital painting.  Junnie Chup

The Intertidal Zone

Digital painting and essay by Junnie Chup

Winter 2022-23, FORUM Magazine

I AM A SECOND-GENERATION Cambodian-American—that is, I was born in the United States, but my parents weren’t. My parents spoke Khmer at home, so my first real exposure to speaking English happened in kindergarten. Awkward, shy, and tongue-tied, I would resort to drawing as a means to express myself when words failed me.

Art was always a natural fixture in my household growing up. My mother is a whimsical wearable fibers artist, and my father makes his living as a sculptor. Because traditional Cambodian culture is very reserved, my parents’ work focuses on positive aesthetic appeal and commerciality. For them, artwork is both a gift the artist creates for the world and a means of putting food on the table. But while I can’t begin to express my gratitude for having such talented parents to learn from, the mindset I inherited—that creativity should always yield a marketable product—is something I am intentionally gravitating away from these days as I redefine my artistic identity.
 
My emotional state strongly influences my creativity. This self-portrait shows me as a child looking protectively over the Gastineau Channel (a significant body of water that nourishes Juneau). I’ve rendered the flanking landscapes in a dreamlike manner to evoke a rare moment of calmness and lucidity from my childhood.
 

Initially, I was inclined to identify my culture as Cambodian-American, but I realize now that I identify specifically within the second-generation experience of this diaspora. The tension in my relationship to traditions I find stifling—a hallmark trait of second-generationers—is a notable source of creativity in my newer work. It is in this intertidal zone of being Cambodian and American that I am afforded the privilege to tread into deeper waters and freely express, explore, and heal through art. ■

Junnie Chup is a Cambodian-American illustrator and photographer living in Juneau, Alaska. Her work explores a variety of mediums from traditional to digital, but she mostly works with watercolor, digital tablet, and digital photography. She has published several works, including the book Beyond Hotdogs.
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