This drawing represents the desire of something.

A piece I did experimenting with background art through the use of a reverse silhouette. I had seen silhouettes before, but never one in which the background was blacked out while the foreground contained the set-piece of the art. At this point in time, I was also interested in the expansion of the West, and wanted to make a piece to reflect these interests.

I was going for an ominous sort of feeling.

For this painting l decided to use a pink and red color for the flower to give a warmth and welcoming atmosphere for the flower.

White delicately painted face mask with beautiful koi fish surrounding the eyes.

I wanted to mimic an all American city. The riverfront is at the very foreground representing historically the geographic reasoning for the city’s placement. The roads loop around the central mall complete with movie theater, bank, and hotel. On the left is the financial district with a bank, office skyscraper, and a park for workers to enjoy coffee and have lunch. On the right is the civic center with city hall, police, fire, and medical. An American city would not be complete without a gas station and a diner found farther down the road on the left. Try to spot small details like the hotdog cart or subway entrance that bring the city to life. Buildings have complete interiors and the bricks are all reused from separate sets.

I made this piece for two reasons, the first being to get more practice with watercolor and the second showing my original characters interact with each other.

I created this piece based on a photo I took when on a family trip to Hawaii a few years ago.

I was inspired by mekanphotography and their beautiful pictures of marine life.

The art is a portrayal of a cute, curious animal, enjoying the colorful leaves surrounded by him.

I created this piece to challenge myself, I wanted to create visual interest, through perspective, and color. I chose a skeleton as my subject to touch on the fact that everyone is the same underneath our muscle, skin and even personality. This fact if comforting in a way, knowing that we always can be connected by this even when we feel completely isolated and different.

This artwork is a calligraphic piece descripting the name PisS!.

I chose to draw a jar of paintbrushes along with dahlias strewn out on the table to show my interests in art and nature.

My artwork shows the connection between my culture and nature, with a woman in a sari surroundered by the ocean. The Dwarakadhish temple, a symbol of the sunken city of Dwaraka, is in the background. I used glazing and impasto techniques with a limited palette of blue, orange, red, black and white, to create different hues and learn color mixing.

I made this piece as a reflection on the difficulty a lot of young people today have with their reflections. Social media, personal insecurity, and many other factors have led a lot of people to be unable to appreciate their outward appearances without changing them in some way (whether that is through filters, censoring, or makeup). By painting this subject’s face using large pixels, I aim to emphasize that point in an exaggerated, impactful way. I hope that anyone feeling this way about their appearance sees themselves in this painting, and that it motivates them to appreciate their features as they are.

This handbuilt piece is inspired by my feelings around nature. My intent with this piece was to immerse the viewer in nature and bring it to life, as well as to convey the sense of calm that I feel in nature. During my research, I compiled images of koi ponds, lily pads, and fish from many different perspectives. Then, during the design process, I simplified these forms and submerged the viewer underwater to convey a sense of childlike wonder. I love the silhouette and motion of koi fish from above, so even though the perspective of this piece is partially underwater, I inverted the hand-shaped fish in an almost surreal way. I feel that this adds a dimension of freedom and playfulness to the piece. To add depth to the water, I layered two blue glazes on the organic base of the piece, which has left a flowing effect that is similar to a floating blue, but with brown striations. The harmony of nature stood out to me throughout my research, so to capture the motion of the koi and a sense of balance, I put the two fish in curved positions on either of the form, swimming in opposite directions. This harmony adds to the overall sense of calm and completeness expressed by this piece.

Earlier this year, 2023, I struggled with a lot of stress around my personal life and academics which left me feeling fatigued.

This portrait represents the duality of my cultural identity and my experience of finding a balance between them. Although I am fully Chinese, and I identify as such, my family is not, and I wanted to express the confusion of navigating the world through the eyes of one culture, while being perceived as another. The moody expression of my subject shows the unstable feelings of being thrust between cultures, while the contrasting light sources represent both the opposing, and often fundamentally different, values, traditions, and perspectives of each heritage, and also their influences on my daily life, including both the connections and happy memories I have made, as well as the more difficult moments of doubt and feelings of isolation. Finally, I chose to use a cool-toned color palette on top of a fiery red underpainting in order to portray both my inherent Chinese heritage, and also my complete Americanness. The warmer light illustrates how I have committed myself to learning more about my birth country, and how I am integrating that into my life in America.

Creativity is something that comes for all in many different shapes and forms.

For this project I sculpted a human head with lichen growing out of it to explore the relationship between humanity and nature. Lichen are a symbiotic organism composed of fungi and algae growing together, and I wanted to show that the relationship between humans and nature can also be symbiotic and harmonious. Lichens are also indicators of good air quality wherever they are growing, and I want this piece to also reflect the hope for healthy and happy communities. At the same time, the image of a monument of humanity being overtaken by nature also suggests the darker message that even after humanity has destroyed itself, life and nature will continue to persist long after us. After a mass extinction, lichen are the first living organisms to appear and begin the cycle that allows an ecosystem to form.