Young@Art 2026

Using Photoshop, I created this piece by combining stock images together and using techniques like quick selection, blending modes, mask layers, eraser, and brush to mesh them into one. In my group's World Building Project, we've created a world where governments and corporations are controlling the world by manipulating the population into thinking that the planet has become a much better place, when in reality, the whole environment outside is being vaporized. The main message of my composition is that it's inevitable that human and technology will likely merge, but it's not inevitable for them to rule your whole lives so our planet doesn't turn into a wasteland.

This is a 3D wood-layer version of a humanoid robot with a powerful AI governing it created for a world-building project. She is known as C26 and struggles with finding her humanity and purpose within. Once part of a corrupt police force, the android grows into an empathetic mediator between humans and AI. This piece was created in layers that were designed in Procreate, colored & outlined in Adobe illustrator, laser cut from wood, and finally animated in Adobe After Effects. I learned a lot during this project, as an aspiring animator, learning to animate things in a 3D space using After Effects is the skill I value the most. Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I am proud of my final product and how much work I put into making the most of the capabilities of each tool I used.

The Ferrett in this piece represents my spirit animal, and the stars in this piece are an aboriginal symbol but are also arranged in the pattern of the constellation that represents Gemini, my western zodiac sign. The symbol for this sign is also included in the picture, in the waves. The waves are also an aboriginal symbol, representing smoke, and the half circle shapes are a symbol representing clouds. I chose these symbols because they were related to air, which matches Gemini, an air sign. I created this piece using Adobe Photoshop, using the brush tool to create small dots and lines to make up my image. I used colors that matched the earth tones that would appear in traditional aboriginal art.

In a collaborative story being worked on by me and 3 of my friends, an industrial city is built on top of a dying dragon, whose potent magic is harvested as a source of fuel. The story follows 3 characters, guided together by a mysterious figure in their dreams who leads them deeper throughout the city to unravel the truth of the dragon and city's origins, as well as the impending danger associated with the dragon's approaching death. This piece explores what the inner tunnels that have been built throughout the dragon would look like. The star-like flesh turns bloody and irritated in the presence of the metal and machinery force inside of it.

This piece reflected how I felt caught in a transitional period of my life. Often, I reminisce on my life through a series of accomplishments and milestones but in that year when I looked back, I felt desolate. I detailed the piece with child-like drawings; additionally I used candles to represent milestones in a person's life to show how she'd spent the majority of her life in childhood as they're submerged in the background. However, in the foreground, children's toys symbolize how she's not progressed past adolescence. The feeling of being burnt out reminded me of sickness and blight-as she sits in a hospital gown, there are monks kneeling at the foot of her bed. In times of need, the common gesture was- and is, offering to pray but, I felt it to have an opposite effect thus I made it so that their presence was a piercing light source.

Even under a black and white lens, sunset is a period of high contrast, as day shifts into night, and the last few casts are thrown from the rod. A completely new medium to me, a lot of trial and error was put into layering washes in the sky to create the multicolored ombre of a Hawaiian sunset. Abstract strokes give the piece a sense of unbridled power, hiding in the darkness, now setting in as the sun bows away. Even as shadow creeps everywhere, the local remains calm like the rolling sea before him. Though his boat is already done for the day, he will squeeze every last minute before the curtains of night set in.

Ever since I was a kid. I've always had a hard time understanding how to act-how to be natural, how to be effortless. It was a mystery to me how others could be so free with their emotions. I've always wanted to be more like them, to be someone more radiant, but sometimes it feels like I've always existed with a stiff suit of armor that just won't come off.

Discrimination against people who look different is an unfortunate aspect of human behavior, a pattern that has marred society throughout history. Despite our best intentions to treat everyone equally, internal biases remain persistent, shaped by the lingering normalization of prejudice. Frogs and toads serve a metaphor for this subconscious division-similar animals, yet with distinct physical differences. A wise frog crowns a deeply moved toad, shattering the preexisting expectations of those surrounding him a hopeful vision of how we could break the cycle of divisiveness.

I am an overthinker, and because of that I'd compare myself to a machine. I have used all the experiences in my life to continuously build a machine, a machine that always knows the correct course of action. But this machine is limiting, it does not allow for growth, not when actions are predetermined and safe. I have begun to realize this, and so I created this piece. It is a representation of my machine, and that moment when I must decide whether or not to continue building it. It asks the question: Will I continue to overthink things and play it safe, or will I try to overcome it, and strive to grow as both a person and an artist?

A quiet church in the heart of Vitebsk, Belarus.

I began with an image. Fish flowing freely in the open air through a geometrically confined space. The contrast excited me, as I started to flesh out the composition. As I created my initial thumbnails, the scene played out before me, a girl in a classroom surrounded by empty desks, as a colorful school passed by above her. What resulted was not only a contrast in shape, but a contrast in colors, as I played with mood and strokes with watercolor paints. As I painted, I came to realize that this moment represented times in which I let my mind drift, much like the fish depicted in the picture. The movement symbolized flowing thoughts and the passage of time, as I sat physically walled in by the classroom. This piece has come to represent my creativity and imagination breaking physical lines and showing me new possibilities when I feel confined.

A much younger me blows out candles on a birthday cake, surrounded by a haze of friends and family. In this piece, I explore the memory of birthdays. How something that once brought so much joy, a day once referred to as the "best day ever," turned into just another memory, left to be forgotten with time.

This piece recalls a day 13 years ago at Chrissy Fields beach in San Francisco the first time I overcame my fear of the ocean. The photo of me exudes this pure, childlike sense of joy and freedom from worry, which I attempted to capture in my pencil rendition.

It's a still life of pumpkins and corn. It took about 2 weeks to complete. The process included multiple sketches, laying everything out and multiple days of painting adding more details and shadows.

After a whale's death, their skeletons sink down to the ocean floor and give millions of organisms the nutrients and shelter they need to survive. A whale fall gives back to its environment far beyond the whale's original lifespan without this cycle, there would be a death of life in the sea. A whale's death is still a tragedy. Is it worth it?

My paintings are collections of composition and color, or lack thereof. In may of my pieces, I explore the little emotions of human life that seem indescribable with only one word. The little parts of my paintings are utilized to be intriguing, whether it can be the textured backgrounds, brightly contrasting colors, or the use of negative space. This piece was mainly inspired by Tyler the Creator's album, "Don't Tap the Glass" and my interpretation. The album showcases three main rules: Body Movement, Only Speak in Glory, and Don't Tap the Glass. I thought about the album's bold lyrics, beats, and imagery, depicting scorn over feeling perceived. Dancing can be an extremely intimate activity, especially when there's the presence of eyes watching your every move. I tried to depict that uncomfortableness that comes with being perceived while dancing through the bold primary colors, textured background, and emphasis on movement in the composition.

When I was first coming up for the concept of my piece I was drowning in schoolwork and finals, it felt suffocating. Throughout the creation process of this work, I utilized perspective and composition to symbolize those feelings in an over worked, underpaid, office worker. Hence the name "Overworked and Underpaid."

This sculpture serves as an artistic reminder of the beauty yet tensions between human innovation and the natural world. It represents an important question that has been posed to us all. How does human innovation affect our environment? I believe that with genuine appreciation and understanding for our planet, life will always find a way. This sculpture and glazing serve as a visual representation of the beauty and necessary persistence of living foliage growing in any circumstances, especially in the face of human construction.