Hatched Chicken: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Thuy-Tien Le (2013)

Hatched Chicken in Urban Civilization - In my illustration, I wanted to bring up an idea that I brought up in my personal essay. The gist of my personal essay was about a girl who was growing up and changing into an adult while leaving behind her childhood innocence. Somewhat of a Catcher in the Rye idea, but very true and relatable to my own life. I thought hard about how I could represent my idea in an illustration and not be too cliche’ and eventually I depicted my ideas through a chicken hatching in an egg. The egg and the chicken itself was a bit clique’ to represent growth through time, but I believe that the whole idea itself is unique.

The main focus of the picture is around the chicken hatching out of an egg. The chicken represents me, and the egg shells represent the protective nature of childhood. I believe that when someone is a child they tend to be more ignorant to the real world and that is shown by the chicken being in the egg. However, as that someone grows up, she is more open to exploring the world and that is represented by the egg cracking and eventually breaking, revealing the chicken to the world. The side of the glass fence the chicken is on is black and white, representing the fading childhood innocence as one grows and the glass fence represents an outlook to the future. The side of the fence that the chicken is not on represents adulthood and in my opinion, adulthood is a very dull. That's why I chose to make the skyscrapers in the background and the trees black and white. The skyscrapers represent adulthood because the skyscrapers are where adults work when they grow up and the trees also represent adulthood because they are the grown up portion of plants. However, the grass and land on that side of the fence and the sky is in color to represent the endless opportunities as an adult.