My name is Qiuyu Jin. You can call me Stephanie. I am a high school student. I grew up in Shanghai, China. From a young age, I love Renaissance style artworks. My mum threw me into a drawing class when I was 4 years old. It set me on my journey of art.
Although I try to learn many other things, art is the only hobby I adhere to. Wherever I travel, I always visit the museums and municipal artworks to explore the local artistic inspiration. In 2014, I traveled to France. The Louvre Museum brought me an eye-opening experience of going deep into art history and thousands of fabulous antiquities, sculptures, paintings, and drawings. I immersed myself in the world of art.
In 2015, I moved to California as an 8th grader and was able to pursue my artistic aspirations further. I have been exposed to a greater variety of artistic media: watercolor, oil painting, acrylic, collage, charcoal, digital, etc. The approaches that my art teachers taught me have shaped my understanding of art and how I express myself in art. Every day I commit my time to learning art, not only pretty patterns but also the deeper implications of creative expression. Recently, I completed a portfolio for my Advanced Placement (AP) Art Drawing, which is a college level class requirement. The theme of this portfolio is Captivity, which reflects many social situations. I would like to use my artwork as a call to people’s awareness to improve our society and environment.
Even though I am still growing as an artist, I have a passion for sharing my artistic experience, good and bad, with kids who are studying art. In my spare time, I connect with kids overseas to share my experiences and lessons learned and try to expose them to different ways of studying art. To further this effort, I also became a teacher’s assistant. The more I contribute, the more joy I derive from mentoring, teaching, and sharing. I feel fortunate that I have been able to explore my interest and passion. I cannot stop in the pursuit of my aspiration. My goal is to continue to cultivate my passion for art in college. I hope my dream comes true.