This month’s artist, Lucy Liu, captures a tender and powerful moment between a mother and daughter with her piece, Holding On. Liu shares her artistic journey and gives us insight as to how she uses painting and drawing to explore her imagination and express her emotions.

You’ve mentioned you started learning art at a very young age, how did you get your start?

I have enjoyed drawing since I attended preschool and kindergarten, and my parents found a private art teacher for me in 2013 when I was 5 years old and each week I went to the studio of the art teacher to work on my artwork with her guidance. I had the chance to try different media including color pencil, acrylic, water color, and oil painting. Later, starting in November 2022, I began studying with my current teacher, Youjin Shin, at her art studio to get more sketch training and continue doing water color and oil painting.

How would you say painting and drawing help you express your feelings and thoughts? 

The pencils/brushes and color are my voices in my heart and mind. Sometimes it is more powerful to express myself with drawing/painting instead of speaking out. It can be more imaginary and deep.

How do you decide the subject matter for each piece? Would you describe your process?

It is coming from my life. I decide the subject/theme when I want to express something on paper/canvas which gives me strong feelings that may be happy, funny, sad or special. I then do the draft to decide the colors and media and other details to express it.

What’s the inspiration behind this particular piece, Holding On?

By drawing a mother and daughter intertwining hands, I wanted to depict the strength and resilience of women as a whole while showing how women can comfort and empower each other. By simply holding onto each other, a mother and daughter can share their experiences and tribulations while showing their love and care for each other. The mother in my artwork represents a strong, experienced woman who has faced and overcome challenges in her life. She serves as a role model for the daughter, who represents the future and the potential for change. By holding onto her mother’s hand, the daughter can find strength and comfort in the knowledge that she is not alone in her journey. The intertwining of their hands also represents the transfer of encouragement and empowerment from one generation to the next. I hope to encourage people to recognize the importance of women’s rights and to take steps to promote equality.

What are your plans for the future? Are there any other mediums you’ve considered exploring?

I will be a junior high school student in August 2024, and when applying for colleges next year, I will be interested in the colleges that can provide me with the opportunity/programs to continue to practice art, but my major will be business related. So far I want to complete some quality artworks with oil painting in the next 2 years and don’t have a plan to explore other mediums yet.

Lucy Liu is a 10th grade high school student in California. She started learning art when she was 5. She enjoys expressing her feelings and thoughts through drawing and painting. She has been recognized in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and Celebrating Art contests. She hopes people can feel her creativity in her artworks.