HOPE Humanities

Clandestine by Kayley Vu

For me, conflict is visualized in the form of rising water, a consistent natural force that cannot be avoided. Mentally, envisioning the water levels of my well being calmed me, however during the pandemic I learned not to constantly stress about keeping the water at bay. Instead I now practice being at peace with the tidal highs and lows that life brings, enjoy the scenic jellyfish pass (which represents blissful calm for me, as jellyfish do not have brains), and know that it is with my own two hands that I decide my mental state, and my fate.

Ephemeral by Landy Zhou

As an artist who treasures the nature of beauty dearly, I am always dedicated in depicting the most beautiful scenes I have seen in my life. For this piece, I combined these views with my expectations for the future world and illustrated my vision in a dynamic way. The blue painter’s tape was positioned on the window and then cut into desired shapes. Layers of tape were added to reduce the transmittal of light and give variation to the scene’s brightness. Between the light and the shadows, views could can see both concrete and abstract representation of landscapes.

Reticence by Manyao Wang

The system of knowledge and emotional experiences people acquire in a community construct the conscious “self.” The family is arguably the most important source of influence on the formation and realization of the individual self. This piece adds a large area of dark tones and elements like hands, eyes, and ribs on top of the portraiture, which, while demonstrating the radiant, ethereal “self,” also shows its underlying cause—the suppression and pain that my biological family has given me and the indifferent bystander mentality of the community.