The common arc of an artist proceeds from discovery to mimicry, curves up to craft and experimentation, and then, through that strange alchemy of experience, mentorship, labor, and luck, falls into the self-possession (if not always confidence) that delivers a unique voice toward its fullest powers of expression.
Because of biography and history, we all march inexorably toward questions of identity. I grew up in Hawai’i in a thoroughly multiracial Chinese Hawaiian family, always feeling in-between — between town and country, wealth and working-class, here and there. I am in my 40s now and so I came of age on the continent during the last flaring of the culture wars in the late '80s. On campuses and in cities, race and identity were intensely contended themes of our daily lives. The canon was being rethought...