Student Artists Prepare for College in the Art World

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Senior Paris Zhuang designs five vivid and intricate designs that all couple together as one collection, which exemplify the types of designs she would implement for people as she tries to bridge the gender gap.

Krisha Konchadi, Social Media & Marketing Team
October 21, 2019

As the college application season is shortly coming to an end, some talented artists on campus have the opportunity to pursue their passion by taking steps to apply to colleges for art.

Senior Sunny Song is planning to major in either studio art or illustration and is ready to bring her relentless talent along with her to college.

“I’m mostly doing acrylic and watercolor work, along with a few mixed media and three-dimensional pieces. My artwork is about myself and my relationship with my identity, my culture and my family,” Song said. “I hope [college] will be fun, and, most of all, I hope it will be challenging.”

After college, Song will take all the challenges she experiences and apply it to a career she loves, illustration. She said she hopes to one day be published in comic books and novels.

Behind every piece of clothing comes someone who spends hours on end planning the fit, the color and the design. Senior Paris Zhuang has this passion for fashion and amazing artistic visions to go with it.

“I started to get into fashion because I got the sense that I was not having a normal fashion sense when I was young.” Zhuang said. “I got interested in starting my own brand because I want to influence people with my fashion sense.”

Instead of working for a company, Zhuang aims to work independently to bridge the gap between the gender divide in the fashion industry.

“I do not have a specific plan for my fashion brand. I want to experience different styles as I go on,” Zhuang said. “In my own opinion, my brand would be different from other brands [because] I do not like to separate people by gender. I want to create a brand where all people can wear what they want and have their own fashion freedom.”

In the game design community, it is rare to see a female in careers revolving around video games. However, senior Katherine Hung is ready for her future as a college student and game designer.

“I want to design some [role-playing] games, so like design the concepts and the world background settings,” Hung said. “My inspirations are from a lot of places. I like to play games, so a lot of my ideas may be similar to the games I play.”

Visual arts teacher Kearci Moir has witnessed her students grow as artists and has expressed many emotions when it comes to the students’ career choices.

“It makes me excited that they are going to continue art, especially since we have so many talented artists at Portola,” Moir said. “It’s really cool to see them continue to pursue that as they go into college. Before they had a lot of skills, but they were still developing their artistic voice, and it’s fun to watch them grow.”

Although Moir will miss her seniors, she said she is excited for them to experience the joys and challenges as an adult in the art world.

“I loved being an art major,” Moir said. “It didn’t feel like I dreaded school when I was in college because it was all the things that I love to do. You’re getting out of your comfort zone, and you’re having to deal with competitiveness.