Haoqing's Art Website
They worked hard and pursued their goals to leave marks on this world.
They were the binding and building ancestors of this place.
They were the Asian Master Builders who left an indelible mark on the history of California and the West.
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--- CHANG, GORDON H., Ghosts of Gold Mountain, 2019
Snow Wall I
Size: 4096 x 1714px
Material: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: June 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
Workers bored tunnels under the snow to the base of the ravine, where they brought excavated stone and built upward. Using chisels and a masonry technique employed in China, they hand-cut the granite to make blocks forty to fifty inches long and twelve to twenty inches tall (Chang, 2019, p. 117).
Snow Wall II
Size: 4096 x 1714px
Material: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: June 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
Snowstorm I
Size: 297 x 210mm
Material: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: June 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
April 10th. A storm of hail, snow and rain thunder loud and reverberating grandly among the hills (Chang, 2019, p. 56).
Snowstorm II
Size: 4096 x 1714px
Material: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: June 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
The winter of 1866-67 was one of the harshest in history, with 44 snowstorms and an average of 18 feet of snow at the summit. Yet the tunnel work continued (Fishkin, 2017, p. 35).
Avalanche (Last Scene before Death)
Size: 4096 x 1714px
Material: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: June 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
We had been farmers. Now we lived underground rather than on top of the earth, in snow sheds, tunnels, snow caves (Wong; Zhi Lin, p. 23).
Ice Spike I
Size: 4096 x 1714px
Material & Media: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: July 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
The ice spike 冰针 is a rare and unique natural phenomenon. ​It involves a process of change from liquid to solid. It symbolizes the transformation, growth, and life. It is a symbol of coldness, harshness, and isolation that the Chinese railroad workers faced. ​
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Ice Spike II
Size: 4096 x 1714px
Material & Media: Pattern brush, Apple Pencil, Procreate
Date: July 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
The ice spike 冰针 is often in the shape of an inverted pyramid, which echoes very well with the "China wall of the Sierra" built by the railroad workers under the snow to the ravine's base, where they brought stone and built upward (Chang, 2019, p. 118). Hence, I used the ice spike as a metaphor of natural beauty and wonder, and the power of upward growth.