Senior Eva Li dives into her painting, dragging brush across canvas without stopping to pause and think about each stroke. Working without a sketch, she solely focuses on following the flow of ideas in her head. She shifts between playing with colors and shadows, working quickly to transfer her thoughts onto her painting. Finally, she steps back to take in her creation, searching for any areas that feel incomplete. Finding none, she sets down her brush, feeling a sense of satisfaction with her finished piece.

Eva has been creating art since her mother enrolled her in classes when she was four years old. She takes inspiration from many abstract and contemporary artists, as well as what she notices in the world around her, to create her own form of expression.

“I often feel like I don’t really want to comment on other people’s lives or other situations in the world, but I feel confident and have the power to comment upon my own feelings and life,” Eva said. “So my works tend to be self-centered and about my own expression.”

To Eva, her art is a method of communicating to the world, something unique to her. Though she mainly paints, she dabbles in different mediums such as clay, wood and graphic design, focusing on conveying her beliefs and feelings to her audience.

“I have the ability to convey my opinions and ideas through art, which in my opinion, is the most powerful tool I have because not everyone has it,” Eva said. “It requires me to, first of all, have an opinion or thought, and second of all, be able to convey it with this medium. Together, that is the strongest calling for an artist.”

Through her journey in art, Eva is able to create art that accurately represents herself, taking pride in pieces that convey especially meaningful ideas. However, like many artists, she recalls periods of self-doubt about the works she was producing, questioning the value of her art.

“I realized that my own art doesn’t have to be of value to other people, but rather I just want to evoke any sort of feeling on the spectrum, whether it’s hate or disgust,” Eva said. “That’s its value right there. It’s the fact that it can spark a reaction from others.”

Senior Chiling Han, a close friend of Eva’s since sixth grade, notices not only the growth of Eva’s artistic abilities but also her increasing confidence. She appreciates Eva’s self-assured nature, which allows her to comfortably express her honest thoughts to stand up for herself.

“She’s always someone I can count on,” Chiling said. “I think she’s inspired me to be more outspoken because she truly will speak up for you. She’s just confident.”

Eva developed her confidence as an artist when she took AP 2D Art during her junior year, where she documented a set of torsos in styles ranging from realism to abstraction. Though she had stuck to realism for most of her life, she decided to try abstraction, stepping out of her comfort zone to experiment with the new style.

“I felt like I was reaching a point in realism where I got tired of what I was doing and just wanted to explore,” Eva said. “I wouldn’t say I restrict myself to like ‘Oh, I’m working towards being an abstract artist’ but more that I’ve just explored a variety of things and I’m trying to develop both.”

Close friend and fellow AP 2D Art classmate senior Mirabelle Feng, who collaborated with Eva to create last year’s Artstravaganza poster, loves how the two of them can freely exchange their thoughts about each other’s art. She also watched Eva try out abstraction during their AP 2D art classes and respects her openness to exploring new forms of artistic expression.

“I really admire how she’s able to try something new—completely shift directions and go into abstraction because she wants to know more about that art style,” Mirabelle said. “She’s just got a very nice approach to anything artsy. It’s this very ‘If we try, we try; if it fails, we fail, and we just try again.’ It’s a resilient quality too.”

Pilar Aguero-Esparza taught Eva in her art classes for the past two years and reviewed her drawing portfolio during her frosh year. She recalls feeling especially impressed at Eva’s ability and technical proficiency in realism that she approved Eva to take AP Studio Art in her sophomore year. She commends how Eva takes herself seriously as an artist and puts thought into each of her pieces.

“I love her curiosity,” Aguero-Esparza said. “She is also an incredible thinker. She really thinks deeply about her ideas. She loves to work realistically, but she’s also incredibly excited about conceptual underpinnings in why she’s doing her art. It’s not just about creating the likeness of an image or a person. It has to have more ideas behind it.”

Eva values her artistic journey and remains committed to exploring new mediums and ways to create. The happiness she finds in art fuels her, making it impossible to imagine stopping. For her, art is more than just physical creation. It’s a continuous process of inspiration and ideation.

“I think being able to produce art is something that I can stop, but I can’t stop my creativity,” Eva said. “Even if I stop physically producing art, my flow of ideas doesn’t stop, so there’s no point in stopping.”

This story was originally published on Harker Aquila on October 17, 2024.