More Works
Roses in Mist
Dimensions: 13 in × 11 in
Medium: watercolor
Year of completion: 2020
Additional details: This painting shows roses with a blurred background, emphasizing the beauty and perseverance of roses.
Collins Pond
Dimensions: 36 in × 24 in
Medium: oil on canvas
Year of completion: 2021
Additional details: This piece depicts the peace and tranquility of nature. Created during Covid, going into nature and painting allowed an escape for me and I hoped this piece could bring peace and tranquility to its viewers.
Timeless
Dimensions: 19.5 in × 25.5 in
Medium: pencil, white colored pencil
Year of completion: 2022
Additional details: This piece depicts an elderly woman, hands and face covered with marks of time. However, despite the wrinkles, she still has endured the trial of time. This piece won a regional gold key at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in 2023.
Silent Summer
Dimensions: 20 in × 16 in
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Year of completion: 2023
Additional details: The reference photo for this painting was taken at a popular tourist attraction in China. The location was beautiful, but while walking around, I noticed that people would often leave their trash lying around. Therefore, I thought to add plastic bags to the water, showing the effect people have on the environment, and to make people rethink what the white things floating in the water are. Additionally, the name of the piece, “Silent Summer” references to Silent Spring, an influential book talking about people’s interaction with nature was published, drawing a connection between the effects humans had I saw and the effects Rachel Carson talked about.
Mirrored Reflections
Dimensions: 9 in × 12 in
Medium: acrylic on board
Year of completion: 2022
Additional details: This painting is full of reflections to show how one thing can be reflected many different times and it might be hard to tell what, or where, something is being reflected from. It shows how rumors can spread and end up being something completely different from how it started out. It also shows how when one sees a person, they could be seeing that person after that person has been reflected many times and might not show how the person truly is anymore. Therefore, people’s perceptions of something could be completely different from how that thing actually is.
Covid Lantern
Dimensions: 17 in × 14 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2020
Additional Details: In the midst of covid, everyone had to wear masks, yet many people did not appreciate them. They believed that by mandating the wearing of masks, the government was encroaching on their independence. Through covering the mouth of a pumpkin and having my dog interact with that pumpkin, I thought to express how at the beginning of Covid, there was much curiosity and doubt about the effectiveness of the masks. This piece received an honorable mention at the 2021 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
Past and Present
Dimensions: 17 in × 14 in
Medium: colored pencil and pencil
Year of completion: 2020
Additional details: This drawing includes two sculptures, one in a classical Greco-Roman style and another in a more fluid, modern style. They are drawn at the intersection of three different worlds, each portraying a different scene: nature, geometry, and industry. The juxtaposition of opposing environments creates a liminal, out-of-place feeling. Additionally, the sculptures cast no shadows on their surroundings, furthering the eerie atmosphere. This piece was published in Celebrating Art in 2021.
Between Two Worlds
Dimensions: 19.5 in × 25.5 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2021
Additional details: This piece depicts two boys, laughing and having fun, yet the top of the page depicts a cat peeking out of a hole in the paper. The whole in the paper blurs the divide between two worlds, blurring the limits of reality. This piece won a regional Silver Key at the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition in 2022, and it was published in Celebrating Art in 2021.
Trapped in Dreams
Dimensions: 11in × 11 in
Medium: colored pencil, mechanical pencil on bristol paper
Year of completion: 2021
Additional details: The painting depicts a girl hiding inside a box lit by a projector, folded under the crushing weight of a dark ceiling that seems to confine her. Projected on the walls are stars that allude to the stars and stripes of the American flag and the American dream it promises. However ethereal and illusive, portrayed in a dim black and white tone, the surrounding was ironically bleak. It is when dreams, promises, and uncertainty ahead traps one from seeing what is right in front of her. This piece was published in Celebrating Art in 2022.
Graceful
Dimensions: 7.2 in ×10.6 in
Medium: fine sharpie, pencil
Year of completion: 2022
Medals: honorable mention, Scholastic Art and Writing Awards (2023)
Additional details: This piece is a self-portrait drawn using only words. As a Chinese dancer, graceful is an adjective I always hoped would one day be used to describe me. The background is filled with Chinese characters from songs and poems that inspire me. This piece won an honorable mention in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in 2023.
Soaring (and the Path to Get There)
Dimensions: 8.5 in × 11 in
Medium: ink, watercolor, pencil, colored pencil, printer paper, hot glue, bristol paper
Year of completion: 2023
This piece portrays a dancer doing a leap with the surrounding areas covered in ink, symbolizing all the hardships a dancer needs to push through to get to the moment of beauty on stage. Below the dancers are all the work and the pain the dancer had to go through in order to achieve that desired moment on stage.
The rose was in reference to Gao Yan (高彦), a male dancer who committed suicide on September 10, 2022, Mid-Autum Festival, due to constant verbal abuse from his dance teacher. After his death, a song called “Womxnly” regained popularity. The song in Chinese directly translates to “Rose Youth” and the song was created in honor of a boy who was abused to death in school because he was different. Therefore, by replacing the head of the dancer with the rose, I hoped to show that this person isn’t anyone specific, but rather anyone, even the people who society judges and sees as different.
Together, Shattered, a Lifetime
Dimensions: 17 in × 14 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2022
Additional details: This piece depicts my feelings on marriage. The couple and the yarn symbolizes the love and connection they feel towards each other, and the butterflies are a reference to Butterfly Lovers. However, the shattered shards of porcelain and the cracks on the figures symbolizes the inevitable fighting and conflicts in marriage. This piece was published in Celebrating Art in 2022.
Soaring
Dimensions: 20.5 in × 19.5 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2022
Additional Details: This piece expresses my love for dance. Dancing can feel freeing to me and this piece aims to show that.
Strive for Freedom
Dimensions: 17 in × 14 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2019
Additional details: The crabs strive to free themselves from the jumble of rope. Showing how animals, like people, can also have emotions. It aims to bring awareness to the impact of people on the environment.
Yearning of Home
Dimensions: 11 in × 15 in
Medium: watercolor
Year of completion: 2020
Additional details: This piece depicts an elderly man looking into the distance with a field of tulips behind, creating a sense of beauty and nostalgia.
Moment
Dimensions: 19.5 in × 25.5 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2019
Additional details: Perhaps, when I look back on this piece, I won’t know what I was feeling. But that is life, pieced together by insignificant moments.
Future's Calling
Dimensions: 19.5 in × 19.5 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2019
Additional Details: Some shy away from the future, others look forward to it. Callings from the future, though scary, can also be joyous. This piece creates a futuristic world through the use of colors.
Piggy and I
Dimensions: 19.5 in × 19.5 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2019
Additional Details: My hug with Piggy exudes a sense of tenderness and affection. The warmth in our expression reflects our shared deep connection, a testament to the power and love between me and my dog.
Those days that felt like forever and forever ago
Dimensions: 19.5 in × 25.5 in
Medium: colored pencil
Year of completion: 2019
Additional Details: Upon the sandy shore, bathed under the golden lights of a waning sun, a girl sat on the beach playing with sand in her palm as waves gently patted her. The distance unfolds and blurs as the vast expanse of the sky joins the tranquil water to become one continuous piece. The world harmonizes in a boundless blue, ideal and poetic, thus time endlessly elongates. The girl has a lot of time. The moment of innocence of a child perpetuates, concealed in the hot summer day that lasts forever yet felt like from forever ago.This piece won a regional gold key at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in 2020.