Artistic Journey--Jackie

When I lived in Camarillo, California at age five, my mother took me to my first art lesson in hopes of discovering something that I would be interested in. At the time, we were lower economic class, as my mother was still trying to figure out her life and secure a stable job after immigrating from China to the U.S., so money was tight, and with art classes being expensive, formal schooling in the arts was a luxury we could barely afford to keep. However, my mother always made sure to provide me with as many opportunities as she could; she struggled through long days to make wages to support me and my ambitions, and when we saved enough money to move to a better area of Southern California, we moved from Camarillo to Rancho Cucamonga, where I enrolled in classes at KidsArt Studio for several years thereafter. It was here where I met my art teachers, Paul and Filomena Perez, who taught me virtually everything I know about formal art and technique. They were alongside me every step of the way in my journey to learn more about the arts, and I blossomed from a naive little girl with no grasp on artistic techniques whatsoever to a mature young woman who amassed years of knowledge about art to produce ethereal works. I studied how to use pastels, watercolor, acrylic, and finally oil paint for many years, and when I finished the standard curriculum set by my studio, I was free to choose which medium I preferred to work with. Not only did I paint landscapes, but I created still-lifes, cartoons, animals, and emulations of famous Impressionists’ art, specifically Camille

Pissarro, in my master artist study program. I became entranced with the way Pissarro used pointillism and seemingly carefree brush strokes to produce the impression of landscapes, and I desired to study his works more deeply. Thus, I attempted to learn and emulate Pissarro’s style and apply it to my own works. Pissarro’s works were my muse, and I viewed him almost as a father figure and a guiding hand along my pathway to knowledge about Impressionism.
Freshmen year of high school, my beloved art teachers moved to Chicago to continue their studies in a master program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Visiting Artists Program. Concurrently, I was becoming increasingly busy as I progressed through high school, and these circumstances led me to decide to discontinue studying at KidsArt and work independently at home as a freelance artist. For the next three years, I produced oil paintings at home with a newfound goal in mind: I wanted to do something to give back to my hometown in China, where my roots were. My parents and I planned to host my own art exhibition in Luoyang, Henan, China, where they were born and raised. So, throughout the following three years, I worked day after day to finish over 35 oil paintings, which were shipped to China each summer for my father to store and prepare for my exhibition. The summer of 2018 finally approached, and it was truly an indescribable feeling of euphoria to see my works be showcased in a beautiful gallery, and I was in awe for the most part of this past summer. I couldn’t believe that I had such an amazing opportunity to host my very own art show at 16 years old, and at the conclusion of my three-day show, I auctioned off almost all of my works and raised 40,000 RMB (approximately $6,000) to donate to two local elementary schools! I was even featured in the local newspapers and interviewed by the television station of Luoyang. In this way, I did what I could to pay my respects to my hometown. I saw how young girls were treated still to this day in

the countryside of my hometown: married off once they become teenagers to bear sons for their husbands and never to enjoy the feeling of learning and the opportunities that education brings in attempts to uplift their quality of life. I feel extremely blessed and grateful for all the opportunities I have here in the States, and I wanted to help ameliorate the conditions of the local education systems with more funds to acquire resources to better educate children in the rural areas. Hosting my own art show was not only an incredibly developing and eye-opening experience for me as an artist, but one filled with joy in seeing how my works have been spread to my family and friends in China and a chance for me to do something worthwhile for others through something that I love to do.