1. A Portrait of the Young Man as an Artist

This is the first episode of my nautical sketch using charcoal as it gives crude contrast in terms of lighting. This drawing is inspired by James Joyce’s first book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (my drawing title is an intentional reversal). I studied this profound novel at university but I wish I had the experience at the time to understand the intricacies of Irish surroundings. All I knew is that it is about awakening, finding your own voice, which aptly describes my artist journey now.

2. Odyssey

This is the second episode of my nautical drawing, “Odyssey”, as inspired by James Joyce’s modernist novel Ulysses which quite often has been labelled dirty, blasphemous and unreadable. I was too young when I read it and didn’t get it. I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand it. But this sketch is inspired by a chapter when the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, took a long stroll along the beach to give himself private moment to ponder his literary aspirations and dead mother fixation. Here with a twist I am portraying a Chinese Olympic hopeful taking a breakaway from his possessive mother.

3. Self-empowerment

This is the finale of my nautical sketch, “Self-empowerment”. Freedom from entrapment is the recurring theme in James Joyce’s novels. Some of us spend the whole life searching for freedom, but sometimes it is quite hard for one to feel any true sense of independence. A complete freedom can itself be alienating from the outside world at times, like my depressed brother. If freedom itself can be confining, then what exactly does it mean to be free? Perhaps the clue is in the title.