Michelle Ngo

Late August to September met me with a culmination of ambitious projects all coming to fruition at the same time — my oil painting, Coming of Age, which I had started painting back in March, came to completion, as well as my acceptance into my first Bay Area art market (SJ Made ILLO Mart! happening September 26th and 27th), which inspired me to create new merchandise, namely a larger selection of keychains and bag charms, some new displays and setups for my booth (I had to reactivate my dusty Facebook account to go hunting on FB Marketplace for some cool display shelves), and lastly, my exploration into the history of doves and pigeons and their relationship with humans, which manifested into a small line of related merch- including a bookmark, bag charm, keychain, sticker, and greeting card of rock pigeons!

I’m donating 10% of sales from that line to Palomacy - a nonprofit in San Francisco Bay Area that provides care and rehoming services to domestic pigeons and doves. And on a non-art related goal, Eddie and I are planning a trip to Japan! It’s been a busy few weeks but in the best way I could hope for.

To speak a little more about my oil painting, Coming of Age is probably my most ambitious painting I’ve ever done, in terms of size, details, and meaning. It leans the most into the genre of allegorical still life, in which all the items I depict have a symbolic meaning to it.

I was inspired to create a still life of a bedroom nightstand, which to me is an intimate reflection of a person’s most cherished items and their most honest thoughts before they fall asleep. I also included my favorite books that fall under (or include elements of) the coming-of-age genre, where the arc of the story centers around a person finding their place in life, and the lessons and challenges they face along the way.

For me, it reflects my thoughts on adulthood, womanhood, and the instinctual feeling of animalistic strength and freedom you feel when you truly know yourself, while also balancing that found freedom with thoughts of choosing or not choosing motherhood, and the weight of making/persuing that decision. Prints of this painting will be available online (here and my Etsy) September 21st!