Through my work, I capture the feeling of being overwhelmed by the demands of family and school. I explore the emotional strain of academic burnout, using bold colors to emphasize the weight of the pressures and linework to convey confinement. I used iconography to convey specific meanings and add conceptual depth to the piece. Some prominent elements include the hierarchical focus on the pencil to demonstrate how much stress students like me feel to excel in school, and how it can all be done with a single pencil. The flame represents my drive, and shows how this motivational force to succeed can be the same force that is eroding away at my mind, showing the toll academic pressures has taken on my mental health. The background is made up of collapsing buildings to demonstrate the lack of control students can feel over other areas of life when they are putting so much of themselves into academics. The piece includes a life-size painting of myself, acting as a mirror-like projection of me confronting emotions I have avoided. I hope viewers relate and find comfort in the idea that they are not alone.

This painting, “A Walk Through Chinatown”, depicts my grandma (the one in the blue bucket hat) walking into our favorite fortune cookie shop in Chinatown. I wanted the main focal point to be on my grandma, so I intentionally made the background a brighter red and simplified it into more geometric shapes to contrast with my grandma’s blue and organic clothing. This is one of my favorite pieces because I feel that it truly represents my grandma, from her iconic red handbag to the fortune cookie shop where we shared many happy memories.

This piece is commentary on the exploitation of the working class by the rich. Each plate represents an industry: agriculture, education, fast fashion, plumbing, and electrical engineering. The hands eagerly reach for the plates, animalistic and not using utensils. I chose body parts for the main focus of each plate, such as spines for farmers as they often bend down for long hours and develop back issues. I chose fingers for the fast fashion plate as people will get their fingers caught in the sewing machines, the blood blending in with the fabrics and cloth. Each plate has features that are cut out, which I layered with cardboard to create a 3D effect. I chose to capture the final image with a tablecloth, creating a physical table of plates and hands. The end result is gory and disturbing, reminiscent of our reality.

The idea for this piece was initially inspired by a photograph I took of two of my friends eating ramen together. I’m currently experimenting with themes of sweetness paired with disgust. So the idea to infiltrate organs and intestines into the once delicious-looking ramen appealed to me. Portraying the excitement in the subject’s faces was an important part of the composition, creating a contrast between pleasure and discomfort. I thought it would be interesting to play with a subject consuming something that actually makes up the part of your body that allows you to consume. This is what led to the piece’s title, “You are What You Eat.”

Inspired by one of my favorite songs, I created a painting sharing the idea that people may present themselves differently on the outside while hiding their real selves. The piece depicts a calm man who initially doesn't appear to be out of the ordinary. However, the longer one stares at the painting, odd details start to become increasingly noticeable: the alarming blood on his shirt, the sinister building and daunting sky, a cathedral’s stained glass window, and so on. Similar to a cracked mirror, the background is shattered, revealing interesting imagery that could be associated with the figure. Piecing it together, it’s clear something odd is going on. Is he responsible for a murder? Is he the one dead? Or perhaps he’s a vampire? The story is up to the interpretation of the viewer, but the message holds: people aren’t always who they seem to be, and may carry a strange past with them. Through my work, I hoped to create a captivating work that intrigued its audience, or just sparked a little imaginative thinking. Though bold and chaotic, I enjoy how it differs from my other paintings of normal peaceful landscapes, and hope others find it as striking as I do. Aside from the seriousness, the painting serves as a canvas for people to come up with their own version of the story and have fun with it.

The foundation of my piece is its fleshy pink underpainting. It is overlaid with white acrylic and two hands postured in reference to Michelangelo’s iconic “The Creation of Adam.” My piece is an exercise in irony. The hand with the gun takes the place of God; its power is an evil one, yet we still uphold gun rights as if divine power. The other blackened hand is subjugated by this unfair power, wrapped pointlessly with “thoughts and prayers.” I wanted to criticize the inherent destructive power of guns and our paltry response to gun violence–because we can only recognize the truth by disarming our biases.

Depression isn't a feeling, it's the absence of one: happiness. In a time of vulnerability, a time where I felt trapped, the only thing that would keep me going is the routine of days. I tried to capture this expression of solemn continuity, with the thing that would start my day, everyday.

I created this interpreted self-portrait bust in response to my experience with getting jaw surgery. When I first started this piece, I was about to go in for surgery and its creation continued as I painted it after surgery. I hoped to represent my chronic pain that came from my jaw problem and also how its affects rippled through my life. I decided to name this piece ‘Pre-OP’ since it was a representation of my life before surgery. Other experiences that influenced this piece were the chronic headaches that came with having jaw problems; for this, I decided to remove my right eye. Additionally, I chose to have my jaw hanging with chain because I felt chained to my jaw issues and that they held me back from doing things I would have loved to do and the lack of confidence in my face that chained me to my insecurities. Although my struggle with my jaw is still not done and won’t be for many years, I think this piece will always remind me of this critical time in my life.

I want my audience to feel sucked in, held captive by the glorification of teenage addiction and its destructive cycle. My piece features a boy holding a candle to his mouth like a cigarette, the planes of his face and tender hands illuminated by dramatic orange lighting against a dull, ominous background. The candle mimics subtle commentary on the deceptive allure of addiction, drawing attention to the internal turmoil flickered across the boy’s face. The hands, prominently featured, embody the physical manifestation of this struggle, grasping onto the symbolic candle as a form of self-imposed imprisonment. Through this piece, I wanted to weave a narrative that drew the viewer’s eyes to the match first, then broadened across the illuminated hands, then the face, and finally the foreboding background. Teenage addiction is derived not so much from peer pressure or the desire to be considered “cool” but how one grows to rely on external relief to distract from reality. It grows to become something one can trust, luring its users into its solace and trapping them in an eternal cycle of being one’s own enemy.

This painting represents burnout in a way. I feel like this a lot, especially when it comes to art, being surrounded by lots of amazing stuff and opportunities but still feeling inadequate and exhausted from working. The reference for the head was a picture of my friend who's a baker and that inspired me to make this painting.

This piece is meant to communicate the overwhelming experience of African Americans in the United States. On top of common struggles such as finance and work, African Americans are constantly reminded that they are at a disadvantage in this country’s system. This group faces racial barriers, police brutality, and other injustices daily. Reactions to these issues include code-switching and attempting to assimilate to white peers in modern times. The fact is African Americans are not and have never been truly free and safe in their country. I know that I personally will never truly understand how hard it is for Black Americans, however I wanted to try and emulate the feelings that I have read about in my piece. I started the process earlier this school year by reading Jean-Michel Basquiat and taking note of the common features in his works. Additionally, I wanted to incorporate different materials into this painting and experiment with texture. To accomplish this I used plaster to outline the shape of a head and pasted newspaper onto the canvas. I used many coats of acrylic paint to achieve a layered look that is meant to convey concepts of complexity and depth. I chose to use a lot of red as a symbol for blood spilled and surrounding the African American experience. Finally, I added details inspired by Basquiat such as words reminiscent of the civil rights movement and small lines around the head using a sharpie.

This is a color pencil drawing of my cat, Valerie.

My parents constantly fought when I was younger.

This piece is meant to display the disconnect between the bleakness of reality and the beauty of distraction.

Emotion Explosion is a reflection of how I handle my feelings.

Teapot inspired by the endangerment of elephants.

Studying Korean traditional art through an Asian art history class, I particularly fell in love with its key principles, such as emphasis on how well intentions are expressed, the use of intensity control, and the beauty of negative space.

While making this art piece I learned how to shade and fade my colors better.

This is a drawing of my imagined dream home which draws from countryside homes I saw while traveling through Northern Spain.

This piece depicts a man making street art where his younger self used to draw on with chalk.