2187 × 3134px png of A4 watercolour painting. Primary sale includes signed and framed original. This painting represents finding the balance between choosing to follow the safe route and reaching for the stars. As a first generation immigrant, and daughter of a single mother, choosing a career in Art was not an available pathway to me. For immigrant families, the focus is often on following what is practical; choose a job which is conventional, choose a pathway which is safe. Growing up with little security makes you strive to build that feeling for yourself in future. The basis of security from which one can build a ‘risky’ career is a huge privilege, and one that is definitely not afforded to all. Yet, we do not stop dreaming. It’s hard to. Always, in the back of your mind, the thought remains: I could be an artist. If only I didn’t have the pressure to find steady, safe success. If only I had a net to fall into if it all went wrong. But I don’t, so I can’t. This is what this piece represents to me - the balance between dreams and reality. There are two sets of eyes — one looking down at my hands, which represent the reality of what I am capable. Hands are a symbol of hard work, and, in this context, the practical reality of working hard to build the kind of security that we are not born into. The other set of eyes looks towards the sky, particularly at the Cancer constellation. My star sign is Cancer - a sign that was assigned to me based on the time and location of my birth. Since the beginning, it has been my destiny. The subject of the piece looks up at it, wondering what her destiny is. Whether it is something bigger than what is limited by what her hands can produce. The other two constellations at the top of the painting are the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. These are traditionally seen as guiding constellations; people can find them in the sky to work out what direction they are going in. In the piece, she is not looking at them, but they are there. This reflects how I often feel like I don’t have a lot of guidance, finding my own way through the world myself. I am fiercely independent, and choose to carve out my own path. Sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly. But the guidance stems from within me, same as the Little Dipper placed on her forehead. Lastly, the constellation on the bottom right is a Scorpio - my mother’s sign. This is placed nearer the hands, nearer reality. Immigrant mothers often sacrifice their own dreams for the sake of their children achieving theirs, uprooting just so the next generation can have a better chance at success than they did. Their reality is firmly anchored to just that — reality. But it is because of them that children have the chance to look up at the sky. Finding the balance between dreams and reality has ultimately shaped me into who I am now, and who I will become in the future. Fiercely resilient, independent and ambitious, but always a dreamer at heart. And for that, I am grateful.