Senior Esther Kao ascended the stairs to the stage of the Rotary Peace conference art competition in La Verne on March 1, walking past the third and second place art pieces as she accepted her prize for achieving first place. We recently asked Kao a few questions about her artistic endeavors and what her artwork means to her.
Q: What is your favorite thing about creating art?
A: “I think the one aspect about creating art is the integration of my physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional self. It becomes more than just an object or idea outside of me. It evolves as I evolve, and how I view it changes as I change. Oftentimes, I come out of a piece slightly altered because of the experience.”
Q: What do your friends and family think about your art?
A: “I recently started sharing a few of my artworks and my artistic intentions, so even now; there are only a select few that have seen the entirety of this side of me. For the few that have seen it all and really understand who I am in those works, they tend to appreciate them. Appreciate, specifically, not like or dislike.”
Q: What do you love about art?
A: “I love how subjective art is. There are no strict rules or limitations and art allows for the expression of the most extreme to the least profound human expressions.”
Q: Who is your artistic inspiration?
A: “I enjoy a wide range of artists, historical and contemporary, and am inspired by bits and pieces from all of them. In all truthfulness, however, I am more inspired by reality—nature, personal experiences, media, philosophy, literature and the like—than by a single artist.”
TCHS School Newspaper