Tri-City Art

Growing plants is a big part of a world that supports my mental health so I drew a person gathering dirt around a new plant that curls into a green ribbon. I thought that it was a creative way to incorporate the ribbon into the plant showing how plants can help improve mental health. Plants are proven to help improve mental and physical health. Not only is it peaceful to walk through nature but a study shows that trees and plants release phytoncides which not only protect the tree but if inhaled help lower stress hormones. Sometimes the simple act of planting a seed, flower or plant can give someone purpose and something to look forward to seeing grow.

My art reflects upon the idea of young people being seen and heard with their mental health. I feel as though many young people aren’t taken seriously when it comes to this, especially in younger children. This is an important problem that is overlooked in society. A world where mental health is taken seriously is what is portrayed in my painting, simply a young person being heard by an adult/therapist/person that cares. Communicating and expressing care towards young mental health creates a great impact of a sense of belonging and feeling heard.I feel like this is something the world needs. To represent how this relates back to mental health month, I included a green ribbon on the listener and on the corner table, a stack of cards that show Directing Change’s slogan and logo.

My artwork shows one person handing a “text HOPE” card to another person. The piece is meant to show how offering help, or where to get help and noticing when someone needs it is really important and can shed light on a dark situation. The person at the top of the frame is in bright colors that show happiness and seem to glow. This is in direct contrast to the blue and gray tones on the second person, who, in addition to lying on the table, is drawn in dark colors and surrounded by other shades of gray. The ribbon, bracelet, and card are all references to mental health awareness and resources.

I drew a digital news article which discusses the bad treatment Palestinians are facing. For the main “article” art piece I drew the Palestinian flag, with the keffiyeh pattern, which is worn by many people showing their support for Palestine, and a child hurling a stone with a slingshot, which shows that children are trying to protect their country against soldiers and tanks that threaten them, inside the silhouette of the country Palestine. I also included some writing explaining some horrific events that have occurred in Palestine. I included an “advertisement” which has the Uyghur flag behind a woman wearing a mask that has China’s flag as a hand covering the mouth, the Uyghur flag signifying how China is oppressing and capturing the Uyghur people. The Chinese government even went as far as saying that they want to “nip terrorist activities in the bud” (China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang). Not only is this Islamophobia, but what they are doing is a terroristic act because they have committed the genocide of many Uyghurs.

Content warning: About violence and contains content that might be activating. "I wanted to discuss both violence and concerns related to mental health. Violence in the workplace, in schools, and even online has been a common concern over the years, and it still occurs every day. I made this piece because I wish those who are suffering to keep looking for help and for more mental health services to be readily available. Because I am aware that there are still countless victims out there who have not yet dared to confront abuse and seek assistance because they are too afraid and suffer from severe anxiety and sadness. As a result, the victim experiences psychological issues, and many victims—particularly young people with promising futures—decide to take their life because they don't know how to get help. I thus painted a girl with bumps and wounds in my artwork. This depicts a girl who was subjected to both physical and psychological abuse, but who instead of taking her own life, chose to seek help from others."

This is my version of Michelle Yeoh winning an Oscar at this year’s award ceremony. Her message of hope was inspiring. I added in some celebratory aspects, and animated the image a bit, but wanted to express absolute joy and excitement through features in my art. Out of the 95 years the Oscar award show has been running, Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian woman to win the lead actress role–which has only been this year. During her acceptance speech, Michelle Yeoh was vocal and proud of being Asian, spreading more positivity about representation for people that “look like” her, inspiring others to work hard and not give up on dreams.

For this project, I used acrylic paint and water to paint a recently hatched butterfly and its chrysalis. The butterfly has a rainbow pattern to represent the rainbow LGBTQ flag. The chrysalis represents the proverbial and literal closets that so many LGBTQ people are forced to hide in. Butterflies represent hope, so this project represents my hope that LGBTQ people will be able to come out of the closet and be accepted in the future.

After reflecting upon actions that can be made by young people to better the environment, I thought that reusable bags would be a unique concept to highlight. In this day and age, there is so much plastic everywhere and for the most part, plastic bags are an example of this. I feel that instead of getting plastic bags from your grocery store every single time you go, instead, we should all use reusable bags to help reduce plastic waste. I wanted to emphasize this in my painting by showing a reusable bag being used rather than a plastic bag. This change is a small leap that will create a big change for the environment.

To the viewers of my artwork, I’d like for everyone to take a first glance, and see a coral reef. Then, I want the viewers to look closer, and see that there’s cardboard and paper and plastic integrated into the painting. This piece was designed to draw attention to the fact that garbage does not belong in the oceans, and even if you don’t see it at first, it is there. My goal is for viewers to enjoy my piece as an aesthetic, but to also gain a new awareness of the sheer amount of trash in our oceans. We must hold ourselves and everyone around us accountable for ocean pollution, because regardless of our age, we are the only ones with the power to stop it.

The concept behind my artwork is fast fashion and the many cases of abuse to which it is connected to. What my artwork represents is a teen who is saddened by the effect of fast fashion, but ignorant of their growing contributions to it. A figure with flowing hair is contrasted by the more explicit forms of fabric despite herself being made of fabric. She is the color of the ocean to represent its vast depth. This is representative of the growing production of clothing that gets larger every year; it almost seems that we're drowning in a mountain of clothes. This is further enhanced by my chosen medium, consisting of fibrous materials (fabric and yarn) to emulate the materials used in the textile industry. The figure is closing her eyes to represent her ignorance of the problem as it grows around her. Despite the clothing, like I was alluding to earlier she is a part of the problem as well. Her rapid consumerism is taking hold of her life and hurting her simultaneously.

“For 2023 I wish that stereotypes stop defining who we are as a person, and we are defined by our own selves no matter what ethnicity. I wanted to include some of the most common stereotypes that have been used in the past couple years and put them up on a cork board because I know that cork boards/any type of board are some of the most common ways to spread helpful/encouraging words. An example could be billboards which are set up on streets giving out helpful information to people as they drive by, or even motivational writings.”

“My submission represents my hopes for 2023. I’m graduating high school during the 2023 year, so I wanted to emphasize this as the focus point since it will be the biggest accomplishment that I will soon experience. Growing up and graduating high school can carry a lot of fear and anxiety for me, so I decided that I should reverse these feelings and instead be excited and hopeful towards the bright future. In my painting I decided to draw myself in my future graduation gown holding a diploma with a green ribbon. I decided that the ribbon should be green because it represents mental health awareness. I’ve struggled with poor mental health for a large part of my life so one of my other hopes for 2023 would be taking more care of myself and mental health. By becoming more aware of my own needs, I’m hoping for my mental health to gradually become better this year. I surrounded myself in my painting with plants to show my hopes for growth. I will be going through a lot of changes, and I especially hope that I grow due to these changes. Specifically, the flowers beneath me are daffodils which symbolize new beginnings. The 2023 year for me will be filled with new beginnings and I’m hopeful that it will bring me a new outlook on life, success with college, and a healthy mind. I’m very hopeful for this upcoming year, and I wanted to show this as best as I could through my piece.”

“My piece is meant for the monthly prompt category, which could have been interpreted in different ways. The route I went with has changed because for the new year, I wanted to be a newer, better version of myself. As someone who feels like they don’t fit the binary, I’ve struggled with my gender identity a lot. It’s hard to feel right in my own skin and I’ve felt miserable sometimes due to this feeling of being out of place in the world. My piece is meant to be a symbolic version of this change of identity, which has the person in the drawing cutting their hair. The cutting of the hair represents them taking a step towards the change they want—the step I want to take to reaffirm my identity. This piece shows that I want to make the metaphoric move in feeling like my true self in the new year.”

"This is a digital drawing of the recently deceased mountain lion P-22. P-22 - who was euthanized on December 17, 2022, after being hit by a car - has played an important role in raising awareness on animal rights issues across Southern California. P-22 was born in the Santa Monica mountains in 2010, but crossed two highways to move to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, where he was forced to survive within an 8 square mile range (compared to the 150 required by other male cats) and would never find a mate. His situation quickly grew famous, and people grew more aware of how humans had damaged Southern California’s ecosystems. As a result of P-22’s life stuck in Griffith Park, people are taking serious measures to make sure no mountain lion will ever be forced into a situation as forlorn as his. A bridge is being built between two parts of the Santa Monica Mountain range to help expand mountain lion territories and genetic diversity, which have decreased because human development has separated parts of the mountains. P-22’s time in Griffith Park has helped to raise awareness on California’s environmental problems and bring justice to animals across Southern California, and I hope this piece can show that and help us in remembering his life."

"Something that always gives me hope for the future is my cat, Mickey. He was rescued off the streets of Malibu, California and then brought to a shelter East of Los Angeles. He was part of a “trap, neuter, release” program and half of his left ear had been clipped as proof. Suffice to say he had a hard time trusting people and to make things worse, he was partnered with a cranky cat in a cage at the shelter, so he never really had a safe space of his own. On December 27, 2021, he was adopted by a woman who had him for less than 24 hours before returning him, stating that he went crazy at her house and then hid. All cat experts and experienced owners can tell you that cats need to be introduced to new environments bit by bit, and most cats, particularly former street cats, take anywhere from hours to a year to stop hiding. Mickey was given a free run of his new home in the first hour. Fast forward, and my mom and I meet him at the shelter during a volunteer shift a day later. We came back two more times and on the second visit, we adopted him, and the rest is history. His new adoption anniversary is December 30th. Now named after the comic book character, Opus the penguin, he is loving life, becoming more confident around people, and bonding with his new big sister. Opus went through so much hardship, separated from his mother months before most kittens, with a hectic adoption story, and a dangerous life on the streets. But today, he has a loving home, and is bouncing back with a little TLC and catnip. If he can stay resilient and end up happier than ever before, then so can I, and so can anyone."

“Destition: Movie shows how film can be a temporary escape from reality.”

My painting “Recovering” is about my anchor. Last year after coming back to school and getting involved with several school activities, I had some problems with mental health- overthinking stuff, getting pressured, not maging my time wisely- so I had to find a way to go back and make an anchor. As I was working on this art piece, I thought about what my anchor is and how I use it. Since I thought that I needed to focus and concentrate on my studying and academics, I chose studying as my anchor and started using my schoolwork to help me refocus and give myself a sense of accomplishment.

With this piece, my goal was to show a runner escaping a cluster of chaotic things. Running has been my “anchor” over the past few months, so I decided to have the person running away from the sort of nonsensical, disorganized madness that, without an anchor, can really leave people detached from what matters. I painted the runner fairly small because it allowed the overwhelmingness of all of the stuff behind it to show through, while also setting them in front of the objects to give the idea of an escape. I also used night and day to represent the more chaotic aspects of the right side of the painting and the calm of the left.

My entry is about the recent overturning of Roe V. Wade. On the canvas, there is a television playing a news coverage of a protest fighting against the overturning. The people protesting look upset and are all holding signs with pro-choice designs. There is a woman intently watching the screen looking slightly unkempt with bandages. This ties into the theme of justice I was going for, where even if you are not able to persolly be there, you can still watch others fight for the same cause. With a constant barrage of bad news in today's media, it’s easier to feel desensitized and pretend like it doesn’t affect you. A lot of people don’t understand the repercussions of such a case being overturned or who it affects. Even if Roe V. Wade being reversed doesn’t affect you, it can harm the people around you and takes away women's rights to make healthcare decisions for themselves. You never know when something like this could affect family or friends—it hurts everybody. Understandably, there are a lot of circumstances that would prevent someone from being able to fight for themself. The good thing about this world is that there are still people willingly putting themselves out there despite all odds to fight for everybody, both for you and me. I felt like a protest was a great example of this message.

In this artwork, I aspire to instill a feeling of hope; as although the figure is presented with limited categories to force themself into, they still chose to be themself. I dually aim that this instills hope amongst those who have been faced with a similar scerio, who feel alone in their struggles. I hope those who do not struggle with such issues feel a call to action—to emotiolly support those struggling and help the reform of gender & gender norms within our society.

My artwork shows a group of Asians protesting to get justice for them, you can see in the middle picture I have a picture frame of a woman, she is Michelle Go, a victim of racism, as well as anti-Asian hatred, she has pushed down the tracks of the New York subway. I drew her because I want to reclaim justice for her in general and Asians in particular, Ms. Michelle Go's incident has been a wake-up call because Asian Hate Crime has gone too far. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian racism has also become more frequent, some people call our community the cause of the pandemic, and they also make derogatory comments, and said that we should return to our country

My entry depicts a group of women known as the “Harvard Computers” who worked at the Harvard Observatory for a man med Edward Charles Pickering. In 1877, Pickering became the director of the Harvard Observatory during a time of great technological advancement, increasing the prevalence of photography, and subsequently the astrological data available to interpret. Pickering, in what appeared to be a progressive maneuver, employed his female staff to work examine, catalogue, and observe the data presented, however, the decision loses appeal when you take into account the workload of these women, their 25 to 50 cent wages, and their capacity to achieve greatness. Despite this, the women made significant contributions to the field of astronomy, especially Henrietta Swan Leavitt (pictured in the front) who discovered the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheid variables, a contribution that helped shape future astronomical discoveries. Henrietta and the many other talented “computers” performed incredibly important work, however, they received little to no recognition for their contributions.

This piece is about the hope and resilience of the Ukrainians in the War raged by Russian leader, President Vladimir Putin. When the war first began many photographers and jourlists captured the devastation and shock of Ukrainians. A photo was captured of a woman awaiting a train out of Kyiv. The way her hands were held together and the way she looked made me want to understand her emotions. She looked terrorized by the uncertainty of her country’s situation. But later this year, as the war unfolds the morale of the Ukrainians shows power. Once predicted not to even last 3 months, they have lasted almost 10 and counting. The Ukrainian people had hope and something to fight for. I think this women embodies both the terror and the flickering hope that has overrun Ukraine.

I have a friend who is always upbeat and radiates positivity; she is a person who makes everyone around her feel good. She not only supports and consoles me but also those friends around her when they are unhappy; in my eyes, she is a mental health hero who will always be there to encourage and listening to everyone. But one day I recognized that my friend, the sweet girl who was always smiling and happy, was not as strong and positive as she appeared to me and other friends. I eventually realized that her wonderful attributes and cheery demeanor were all masks she had made to disguise the darkness inside of her. My friend is currently suffering from depression and is undergoing psychological treatment. Now, her condition has improved, and she is beginning to open up more in sharing her struggles with friends and me.

“I chose to show my gratitude towards rain. Rain for many people including myself, is a very special thing, especially living in Southern California.”

“I wanted to share how being around ture is a great comfort to me. I think it’s important to recognize the importance of appreciating ture, as well as taking care of it.”

“I hope when people see my art piece, they can think ‘Oh, I just need to reach out’ for mental health help.”

“My artwork is inspired by the overwhelming pollution in the ocean that affects the life of sea animals.”

“You're not alone; if you turn around to look in all directions you'll see that there are people like you who feel isolated and sad.”

“As people fight for justice across the world they look towards the symbol of Lady Liberty in their fight and I feel as though this is an important concept that deserves to be showcased.”

“Rosalind Franklin was a woman who made exceptiol contributions to the discovery of the double-helical structure of D, however, it wasn’t until recently that her me became widespread, which teaches us the importance of discussing sexism in STEM.”

A watercolor piece about the mental health of soldiers and veterans.

A watercolor piece sharing the tiol Suicide Prevention Lifeline and showing a youth reaching out.

“There is polluted air in the sky, and mountains made of trash on the ground, with one shining bright green plant that survives and grows through all those circumstances.”

“I am inspired by migrant workers that work so hard to provide. Justice and equality for the migrants is crucial for getting them the quality of life they deserve.”

“Warm Embrace is an artwork I created where there are two people coming together for a hug and there is a caring moment between the two.”

“My piece is about the feeling of vulnerability and social anxiety, about how it feels for me when I try to pass off that I’m fine and how I feel like anything I do, people will judge me, as if all eyes are on me.”

“The meaning of the piece represents prejudice and stereotypes always following the individual in the portrait, the individual being Hispanic and Latino. Instead of letting these stereotypes control their life the person keeps walking through the twists and turns of life's road.”

“During the transition of coming back to school (in-person), I felt I lost my sense of balance which set me and my plants to wilt and burn a bit. Something that helped me bring back hope for the future was speaking affirmative words and phrases before leaving home and starting anything new.”

“My idea focuses on an advantage of returning to school- the ability to connect with friends, and the support and relief friends can provide.”

“The glass represents things falling apart and shattering but also being free and the toys relate back to a time when one was a child. My world feels like there isn't the rule of gravity to hold it down in place but everything is in its own motion choosing to go whichever way it pleases.”

“Persolly, music is really helpful for me at school and other places because it has the power lighten my mood and condition.”

“In these hard times a way that I’ve coped with these times is riding my bike.”

“This piece represents the power of music. Specifically, how it can take you to different worlds, somewhat becoming an escape from the stresses of reality.”

“Even though they need to wear masks and have a tough workload in school, they are happy about having social interactions and having normal days with friends. The present box is tied with green ribbons, which represents mental health.”

“I wanted to express how there is hope for those who are struggling in their lives and are desperate for help and may not know where to look.”

“I drew two friends wearing masks walking toward the finish line and balloons with reminders of last year’s quarantine. They are happy to be together in person.”

“When I feel overwhelmed or anxious, I like to read a bit to get out of my head and out of my own world and into another. It isn’t always easy but I see a therapist to help me talk through my tough times.”

“My idea was to capture the tranquility of music and its feeling of calmness and peace, even in times of hardship.”

“All of the figures in my drawing represent me and my many thoughts, sometimes overwhelming me. The figure being lifted up reaching for the stars symbolizes hope.”

“I was inspired by what I felt on the day of the January 6 insurrection. Watching the extremists march into the capitol building and walk over our democracy with that much hate was surreal.”

“I think more times than not deciding the verdict for a court case is made using someone’s biased views, that someone’s emotions (the heart) are used to decide someone’s fate or to judge actions.”

“What I am grateful for is my cat, Ora. She has been with me through thick and thin. I love my cat and I’m grateful for her being by my side all these years.”