What's your Chinese zodiac sign?
I’m Silka Huang and I'm an artist. I specialise in Chinese painting and multimedia illustration. I was born and raised in Guangzhou, China, and now I live in Australia.
Queensland is the state of sunshine, nature, and of course different cultures. And I feel very honoured to design this range that can embodies the harmony of the diversified culture and nature. And I hope this range can showcase the lovely spirit of Queenslanders and I hope this can be a beautiful gift to Queensland families.
Harmony, multiculture, and nature is the theme of this range. And I want to convey a message that, thanks to the mutual acceptance from both parties, Chinese immigrants live very happily in Queensland, and we get along with people and nature here.
And so, in this whole range I paint 12 traditional Chinese zodiac signs with different plants that you can find in Queensland and also I put these designs in different scenarios for example forest, farm or even on the sky.
Medium and technique-wise I combine Chinese painting, Chinese ink, Chinese colour, and watercolour to create this range. And when you look at this whole range you can see it's Chinese painting style but it's more vibrant and delightful. And I capture the very typical behaviour of these animals and I feel like this is a very good way to represent a concept that I want to have in this range. And when I look at these ranges just like you feel like, you're a parent, and you look at your babies playing in the nature.
When I know that I was selected to do this project I felt really, really honoured. Because as a Chinese, who was born in China and raised in China, and moved to Australia I can see how beautiful Australia is and I love the life here. And as an artist I always try to find a way to showcase my emotions and showcase the love towards China, my hometown, and Australia in some way.
And this opportunity is a really great opportunity that I have, and I hope to give the best wishes to any Chinese who is living in Australia and I want to give all the best wishes to Australian as well.
