A love for the arts seems to have been genetically passed
down in my family. Both of my grandmas had an exceptional mind for creativity
and an eye for visual inspiration, expressing their interests and opinions
through painting, drawing, and needlework. My parents are also propelled by the
visual beauty of things, and express their artistic abilities through designing
accessories. This is probably why they enrolled me in art classes at the age of
6… Since then, I have always shown great interest in the arts, which has
sparked my creative mind in various subjects throughout my life.
As I previously mentioned, I started taking art lessons when
I was only 6 years old. My first projects included paper mache,
finger-painting, and tracing photos with translucent paper. However, as I got
older I started learning more intricate techniques relating to drawing and
painting, such as blending and textures. While most of my art classes revolved
around painting, I also did plenty of artwork on the sidelines and in school,
which allowed me to develop my drawing skills. When I was younger, my favorite
images to draw were flowers and pine trees. As I got older, I started drawing
more complex landscapes and still lifes. One of my biggest struggles throughout
my artistic career was my ability to draw people, which I endure even to this
day.
While I enjoy drawing on its own, the creative edge it
entails has been hammered into my mind and has come into use throughout my
life. Art, in general, has enabled me to think outside the box, to connect
not-so-relatable concepts and make sense out of them, and to come up with ways
to view topics or principles in a new light. For instance, throughout my
academic career, I have conducted several scientific research experiments, such
as the effect of a particular mutant cancer gene on brain tumor progression. At
the beginning of my project, I had issues with the amount of time it took for
tumors to progress and the amount of time I had in the lab. I therefore had to
think of ways to enhance the progression of tumors while still getting
effective and realistic results. While I of course needed a scientific
background to conduct this project at all, my artistic background and the
creative thinking it required enabled me to more easily propose a protocol that
hadn’t been worked up before. In general, having engraved a creative mindset
from such a young age has helped me think of new ways to connect factors and
form a relationship between them.
While I have been able to sneak in a couple artistic assignments
for my science classes every now and then, one of my biggest struggles when I
came to Duke was the lack of time I had to designate to drawing and painting.
With the heavy load of classes and requirements I, and the majority of
students, had to fulfill over the course of my Duke career, I hardly had
anytime to draw or paint on the sidelines. This semester, my final semester at
Duke, I finally had the opportunity to take an art class and remind myself before
I enter the real world how much I truly love and enjoy art.
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