Spirits
In this project, I am depicting spiritual pollution. Many people often mention having a spirit animal, so I decided to show the spirit animal of a person fading away because the person has become less pure, but does not realize it until the last second. In my drawing, there is a large wolf in the background coming out of a person that is kneeling on the ground next to the dead body of a physical wolf. I choose a wolf for the spirit animal because of its significance in many ancient European civilizations.
Broken Bridges
In this project, I am depicting relationship pollution. Many relationships, both romantic and platonic, eventually break apart. They start off well, and everyone is content, but people start to be toxic towards each other and their relationship falls apart. In my drawing, a bridge is being broken apart by negative “ideas”. Close the places that are further away from the bridge are more colorful and bright, showing the start of the relationship from both sides. Closer to the bridge however, the colors are more drab, showing the relationship starting to fall apart.
Face of Emotion
In this project, I am depicting losing one’s childhood. Childhood is usually fun and filled with laughter and very little hardships. As one gets older, however, life starts to have more challenges, and eventually it feels like one is falling due many burdens. In my drawing, a child is walking up a small hill, but at the end of the hill there is a cliff, where another person is falling. The person climbing up the hill is unable to see the person falling and cannot them or themselves. The side of the person walking up the hill is bright and cheerful, whereas the side with the person falling is more gloomy. A person is also lounging on the beach under a setting sun, but below they are crouching and hiding away from the darkness. This is all shown in a face.
Wildfires
This project showcases the numerous wildfires that occur throughout the world. When I started this project, California was being plagued by wildfires. Many people had to evacuate their homes and leave everything behind. I decided to make art based on the struggles many people«were facing at this time. I made this project in a collage style and used construction paper to make the background, fire, forest, and body of the person. I also drew people at the bottom to show them in fear of the damages fire causes. I choose to use a person to depict the fires to show that fire is a living thing that can destroy everything easily.
Pathway of Vapes
I became curious about vaping, and its effects on future offspring of teens who vaped when I saw the prevalence of the problem in my community in Santa Clara County. I decided to research this question further by designing an experiment using fruit flies and dosing them with e-liquid. My study found the second generation of offspring suffered harmful effects, and all subsequent offspring were not viable. Further research on this topic exposed me to other problems with vaping and tobacco waste: it is one of the most common forms of plastic waste found. Discovering the compounding negative effects of e-cigarettes, I joined Stanford’s Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising where I spent a summer investigating how vaping companies market their products to lure younger audiences. My work focused on large- volume devices, products containing 800+ puffs per device (equivalent to 3.5-8.5 packs of cigarettes), all packed into a tiny space so adolescents can use as frequently as possible. With all the work I have done in vaping, and seeing the negative effects it has on adolescents, I create a piece to showcase how by using e-cigarette devices frequently, eventually one’s lungs will be destroyed.
Good and Bad
This project focuses on one’s mental health. Often outside factors, such as people of situations, negatively influence us and feed the negative aspect of our mind. At some point, when these outside forces become frequent enough, the negative part of our brain dominates the positive side; it essentially destroys the positive energy we have. My artwork depicts how negative factos enter our mind and how the factors feed off of our positive energy and influences our negative energy. I used different colored string to show how these processes are interconnected with each other, and one cannot exists without the other. Everyone has negative and positive energy inside how them, and we need to be able to control how outside factors influence us, since we can never escape negative emotions.