Mirroring Northwood’s colorful diversity, AP Studio Art students use their portfolios to showcase the myriad of hues from their cultures.

Here are a few students’ projects and how they thread art with culture:

Family lines and ink lines

Junior Lawrence Lin’s portfolio combines his Chinese and American culture through two mediums: half of his works are digital, using modern techniques, while the rest imitate traditional Chinese ink paintings.

Lin’s portfolio is centered around a guiding question: how does tracing his family lineage and culture influence him as an artist? Inspired by his grandfather, a talented artist who painted in traditional Chinese ink, Lin’s works depict various family narratives.

“One I’m working on right now is about how my grand uncle cut off his pinkie while doing woodwork, and he reattached it,” Lin said. “Every time I see his pinkie, I’m reminded of my family’s stories and culture, so I drew it. But it was attached with jade, with a phoenix and a dragon sculpted to represent Chinese culture.”

Persian culture and motherly love

With acrylic paintings that capture the complex bond between a mother and daughter, junior Farnaz Farmanian’s portfolio pays homage to the beautiful and delicate designs of Persian rugs. Her drawing style takes inspiration from a well-known book of poems in Iran called Hafez, named for the poet who wrote the collection.

Farmanian credits her mother for inspiring her appreciation of Persian culture, teaching her traditions like reading Persian literature and cooking cultural dishes. This ultimately created her portfolio’s focus on maternal love and heritage.

“The biggest lesson that my mother taught me is patience—to approach every situation in life with grace and calmness,” Farmanian said. “It helped shape me into the person I am today, and I don’t go a day without recalling it.”

Cultural juxtaposition

Using the subtle opacity of watercolors and defined palettes of acrylic paint, junior Amy Yang’s project explores her experiences with both American and Chinese culture as an immigrant. Under the theme of “Multiculturalism,” Yang works with the contrast between Eastern and Western cultures, while also integrating aspects of the two.

“One of the personal experiences I drew is the New Year’s and Christmas celebrations in China and Western culture,” Yang said. “I tried to paint the scene in which Santa Claus drives his reindeer sleigh to China on New Year’s Eve. It’s an integration of different cultures’ expectations of the New Year.”