Yee Wah Jung's Obituary
Yee Wah Jung was born on September 4, 1936 in Canton, Guangdong, China into a family of prominent artists. Her father Yuen Tsin Yip, a cartoonist, was well known for his refugee paintings of the war against the Japanese invasion of China. Her mother, Chiu Fung Poon, a mural painter and art teacher, was famous for her Confucius series of murals that donned the walls of public schools and hotels in Hong Kong. Yee Wah first studied art from her parents and then at the Guangzhou City Arts School, formerly the Chung Nam Arts School in Guangzhou, and subsequently at New Asia College in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.In 1962, she married Kwan Jung, also an artist, and they moved to San Diego in 1963 where they raised three daughters, enjoyed being part of many San Diego art societies and exhibited their pieces locally and in galleries across the country. For a time they owned The Limehouse Chinese restaurant on Mission Bay Drive in Pacific Beach and also a gallery in La Jolla with both, of course, prominantly featuring their art pieces.Yee Wah’s art spanned several styles from traditional and formal Chinese landscapes to the more abstract using oils and acrylics, described as kaleidoscopes of color bursting like rockets across the paper to form vibrant multi-colored shapes and configurations, suggestive of content and ambiguously intriguing. She delved into portraiture and still-lifes. For her family, her creativity extended into everyday items like intricate beaded embellishments on clothing to jewelry and hairclip designs which were a delight to see. Her garden benefited from her care, lush and profuse with fruit.She is survived by her daughters, Jeanne and Kathy, her sister, Dai Wah, her brother Wing W. and nieces and nephews. Preceded in death by her father, a younger brother and mother, her husband, Kwan, and daughter, Laura.
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