A girl with brilliant blue and purple scales on her face and hair to match: the piece, “fisheye” can be seen on posters all around campus reminding students about Aria Liu’s (‘23) art exhibition. Her art decorates the staircase to the lower floor of the library. The walk down the staircase is filled with bright colors and a variety of styles — some pieces are made digitally while others are done using Posca paint markers. This display will be available for students to browse until December 22, 2022. 

Starting her art career in sophomore year, Aria Liu (‘23) experimented with more realistic pieces like her acrylic painting of a clarinet. Most of the pieces at the exhibition, however, are from the end of Aria’s junior and beginning of senior year.

 “I feel like my art style has changed a lot throughout the years, and you can kinda see that at the exhibition,” Aria said. Ms. Elizabeth Wepsic, the Visual Arts Department Chair, noted that Aria’s art has “become more bold. Her art is layered in complexity.” Near the bottom of the stairwell are very realistic pieces, contrasting greatly with the more bubbly, colorful pieces she has displayed as well. “She has the ability to work in a very stylistic, comical, cartoony, non-realistic way, and then go to the opposite, with these ridiculously realistic pieces. So realistic that I once mistaken her art for reference pictures,” Ms. Wepsic added.

With a wide range of styles, Aria also uses a wide variety of mediums when creating art. “My exhibition mainly focuses on acrylic, digital art, oil pastel, posca pens, pen and pencil, [but] I’m basically down to try anything,” Aria said. She loves making art — spending lots of time expanding her skills. “I think that most of my teachers and classmates know that I spend a lot of time drawing in class,” Aria explains. While describing her relationship with art, she said, “I love making art, but sometimes things don’t turn out how I want it to and it gets frustrating.”. Sometimes the process to the final product isn’t linear. Hanging on the bulletins are pictures and snapshots of Aria’s process. One of the pinned pieces is a sketch of the art piece, “fisheye” that is seen on the posters. 

Most of Aria’s art work is up for the viewers to interpret for themselves. “But I would say overall the running theme is identity,” she said. Many of her pieces have a unique edge that leave the viewer staring for a little longer. 

Anyone can go enjoy her work in the library!