Once Upon a Time, Again uses the power of storytelling to reimagine the artist’s lived experiences. Sonny’s paintings retell and reconstruct personal narratives through fantastical scenes and familiar fairy tales. Stories and themes derived from familial relationships and her Asian American identity play out in several series of narrative-driven acrylic paintings. She relies on the playful and inviting language of storybook illustrations to tackle these themes of harsh reality, subverting the viewer’s voyeuristic expectation of storytelling media.