Finding inspiration from her window

Shreya Shankar • October 1, 2008

Junior Angela Lin sees the beauty of ordinary objects and places as inspiration for her art

In her quiet art studio, the clock quietly ticked and the only movements belonged to her hands, her eyes focused back and forth from the sidewalk to the canvas. Her heartbeat moved along with the movement of her hand. The back of her hand smudged the dark charcoal marks, and her easel quietly squeaked. Her soul poured into the white and black charcoal depiction of what some would call an ordinary sidewalk but for her, her inspiration.

About six years ago, junior Angela Lin was asked a sketchy question. Her art guru had just posed a thought that had never struck her; what was she going to do with her art career? Lin vigorously drew, painted and finessed her art for weeks until she could come up with an answer.

“Art gives me the freedom of expression. If I were to define it in one word it would be defined as a perception,” Lin said. “Art is like its own language.”

Lin’s art styles include traditional painting, cutout, charcoal, and a few casual design.

“Angela just submitted the winning t-shirt class designs,” junior Kelli Sum said.

“Her amazing backboards contributed to one of the best parts of our Homecoming float,” junior Christopher Chui said.
All these achievements are not what make Lin the artist she is today, however. It is her admiration of natural beauty that carries her through the canvases.

Lin effortlessly makes ordinary objects into exquisite canvases. She has a liking for showing the special features of an ordinary object and expanding the uniqueness of it. Some of these include Lin’s prized pieces, “City Light,” “My Sidewalk,” and her new piece “Raffael’s Oyster.”

Her recent masterpiece, “My Sidewalk,” won Best of Show at the Olympiad of the Arts, a prestigious art foundation.
“Though it might seem something ordinary, that’s why I like this drawing,” Lin said. “It reminds me of something very special to me—the sidewalk I stare at outside my art studio.”

To further advance her art career, Lin took a trip to The Olympiad of the Arts, an art camp, one of her most rejuvenating art experiences ever.

“The camp was awesome—we ate, lived, and breathed art,” Lin said.

There, Lin tried out figure drawing. By sketching the human body through various angles, shapes and proportions, Lin learned a new form of art and was amazed by this drawing of the human anatomy and definitely sees this in her future.

“We all had different perspectives, different stories that were told through art,” Lin said.

Though she is working on developing her own style, Lin is also working on other pieces utilizing her newly learned techniques. She is making use of her ordinary old running shoes as a meaningful canvas to paint her heart out on.
Her other piece, “Raffael’s Oyster,” portrays an ordinary oyster in an extraordinary light. She utlilizes the canvas with a newfound perspective and to its fullest potential; the oyster is magnified in its natural beauty and it has two pearls inside it— representing herself and her brother in their home. She exemplifies the beauty and gains this inspiration from the book “The God of the Heavens and Earth,” a book that shows the simple beauties within this world.

Despite her talent, Lin doesn’t see herself as one who is more gifted than others.

“Everyone can paint a message, and each individual has the freedom to express oneself. That is what defines art.”