Hello friends, are you wondering where the first two months of the year went? Me too. March is a special month for me because it is my dad’s birth-month and also the month of his passing. So in honour of him, I’m going to share about his influence on me as an artist. I hope you enjoy these stories! (Note: if you have a fear of frogs, you might want to skip this post.)
Last month I shared about a cubist-style frog piece that I had created for my dad’s birthday when I was in high school. Those of you who knew my dad would know that he had a thing for frogs. For him, frog was an acronym for Fully Rely On God. And seeing frogs would remind him that he could rely on God.
One day when I was home from university, he told me he needed to repaint the garage doors. For many years, those doors had been white with red trim to match the red brick on our house. But this time, he didn’t want to do the red trim. “Olive,” he said to me over dinner, “why don’t you paint something on them?” I looked back at him across the table “…Paint what? Frogs?”
So that’s what we did. He repainted the doors white and I set to work painting a set of three frogs. One for each member of our family. It felt bold and rebellious to paint something so eye-catching in an otherwise serious neighbourhood. But people loved them. And whenever we had to give directions to our house, we could say, “Just look for the frogs on the garage doors!”
After the garage door frogs, I decided to have some more fun inside the house. One afternoon when a huge storm had knocked out the electricity, I had nowhere to go so I painted a little frog peeking out from one of the closet doors in our front entryway. Later, I painted one that looked like it was going through the other closet door, with the little bum on the outside and the head on the inside. And then I painted one last one on the front door looking like it was peeking out the peephole (which my dad had upgraded to a screen-like viewer).
Fast forward seven years, the original garage door frogs were all faded and the paint was peeling. I was engaged to Tim and planning to move across the country. My dad said it was time to repaint the garage doors again and I said I would paint a new set of frogs before I left; 4 of them this time to reflect our growing family.
You wouldn’t believe how many people stopped their cars to reprimand my dad as he put a fresh coat of black paint over the old frogs! We didn’t realize just how beloved those frogs had become in our community. He had to reassure them that new frogs would be going up and not to worry.
Eventually, my parents downsized and sold that house. A quick check on Google maps shows that the frogs were still there in 2011 but by 2014, they were painted over. People still talk to me about those frogs every so often.
Most Asian parents hesitate to encourage their kids in the arts but my dad invited me to display my work in the most visible way possible. (My mom was also supportive, of course, but she gets her own spotlight later this year.) Now that I’m an artist, I look back at 20-year-old me and think, “You lucky girl, to have parents like that.”
This month marks 5 years since my dad’s death. Although he never got to see my art career, I know he is proud of me. Thanks for your legacy, Dad.
PS. If you didn’t get a chance to meet my dad and are curious to know more about him, here’s a piece about his life that I wrote as a eulogy for his celebration of life: In Memory of Ben Lam.
Questions for reflection, if you want to go deeper: It takes a certain boldness to ask your child to paint frogs on your garage doors. In what area(s) of your life do you feel you are living boldly? In what area(s) of your life would you like to live more boldly?
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As always, I love to hear from you! If something in this story resonated with you, if you’re interested in commissioning a painting, or if you have other thoughts, feel free to email, or connect with me on Facebook or Instagram. Thanks for being part of my journey and for letting me be a part of yours!