Shared Wisdom, Separate Lives
Colored Pencils, Collage, Acrylic Paint on Drawing Paper
The piece showcases how people can look completely different on the surface through their body language, expression, and styles. Yet they still share the same worries, values, and hopes. Each friends represents a different personality capturing their gestures and way they carry themselves. But the quotes above were chosen by them having similarity where everyone talks about life, time and how they want to stay young. Though we all grow up in a different mindset, each person came back to the same kind of core truth being aware that time only goes forward. The quotes were given by my friends where they believes it helped them the best whenever they were facing the struggle and what came to conclusion was everyone’s quote were related to time where we can’t go back. That’s why I believe the song “Forever Young” by Alphaville fits the best for this piece and created a piece that relates to this song.
Song that represent this piece: “Forever Young” By Alphaville
Quote: “Some are a melody and some are the beat. Sooner or later, they all will be gone. Why don’t they stay young?”
Disappearing Faces
Acrylic Paint, Canvas, Acrylic Paint Brush
This piece shows the idea that, as our memories continue to fill us with new ones, some parts of the old ones will be erased. Not what we did or who we hung out with, but the faces of each other. This was shown through the concepts of not filling the entire face structure and, further, the face becoming blurry and disappearing. The song that I used for this piece was “Fast” By Juice WRLD. The song's concept of time moving fast and never stopping helped me realize how much teenage life means to many adults, as well as to me. The memories that we have are just “good old days”. Not where we can do it again tomorrow, as we have to step into our own paths and allow ourselves to remember the new beginning and adventures. The blurry, dark background conveys a sense of awareness of how environments are disappearing from memory, while the background covers the process of disappearing faces.
Room 15
Graphite, Soft Pastel on Drawing Paper
Most people, when they think of South Korea, may think of Ramen, K-pop, BTS, skin care, and so on. But something that is niche and kept low is Norebang, which is a Korean Karaoke where a lot of students, including myself, go with friends to release all that stress from school and day-to-day life. Karaoke reunites friends who may be struggling with emotions, bringing them together with peers in the same room, sharing the same song, and helping them not only get closer but also more real to each other, allowing them to find a space that enables them to be emotional shelters. But all this comes to an end, and my entire life in South Korea, all those daily Karaoke sessions with friends, become memories, leaving behind something we used to love and enjoy for the younger generation. The shelter that once helped us become friends, that knows all our emotions, is left behind.
Song that represents the piece: “이젠 안녕" By 015TB
Quote: “And hesitated to talk casually as friends. We spend a lot of days immersed in music. This countless days but it's a pity that we can’t go back to”
Blurred in Time
Acrylic Paint, Canvas, Acrylic Paint Brush
This piece represents the street mirror, where the bodies are stretched and blurred by the distortion of memories drifting apart. It is wrapped in the reflection on how simple moments in our day-to-day life turn into moments we can never go back to and have to leave behind as “memories”, and how the memories shift and reshape over time. Even though the background and the surrounding melt into abstract patterns, the closeness between the figure/individual remains clear. Answering the idea of how the environment will stay the same, but the memories with that person fade away as we move into the future and leave behind the past.
Song that represents this piece : “Night Changes” by One Direction
Quote: “Does it drive you crazy. Just how fast the night changes? Everything you’ve ever dreamed of. Disappearing when you wake up”
Close, Yet Far
Charcoal, Soft Pastel on Drawing Paper
This is a piece of a double self-portrait that compares my first year and my senior year, where the freshman version of myself sits with a phone full of hope, dreams, and innocent excitement about the future, wearing college pants as a symbol of who I want to become. Not worrying about anything, as I self-think, “I have enough time,” but those days turn into memories where my second portrait of myself looks down, remembering days that are no longer present, more of a memory—coming to reality and leaving behind the younger version of myself. This piece represents the song “Last Dance” by Big Bang, where growing up is part of the journey and a way to start a new chapter in my life.
Quote: “And even all the many friends I had are leaving me. I've gotten older so I guess I become an adult. Why am I so anxious?”
Am I Maturing or Just Getting Older?
Acrylic Paint, Canvas, Acrylic Paint Brush
This piece reflects upon those “high school relationships” that everyone talks about and experiences. It’s more like a stepping stone where you experience the first heartbreak and the world crumbles down to pieces, but all the upperclass or grown-ups dismiss them as a small or immature love life. But it’s something that leaves the deepest marks on us. In the painting, soft colors, shared space, and intimacy capture the young lovers' lives, resonating with memories we hope will remain the same. But those feelings have to go away as most high school relationships come to an end. It's something that hurts the most, forcing us to grow and understand ourselves, and helping us learn how to become mature. “Every Breath You Take," a song many mistake for a love song, this piece of art has a deeper ache lying beneath its calm surface. What once felt comforting becomes painful to revisit, making memories quiet lessons on how to move forward.
Quote: “I look around but it's you I can't replace. I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace.”
I Am What I Listen To
Colored Pencils on Drawing Paper
This piece is heavily focused on how the music shaped my identity throughout my high school years. For me, music isn’t just something I listen to or listen to when I’m bored; it’s the language that understands me, giving me time and space to reflect. The albums that surround me are the ones that I listen to most often. It represents me in different emotions and chapters of my life. Different albums/music hold various meanings, feelings, and memories.
Where the Game Slows Down
Acrylic Paint, Canvas, Acrylic Paint Brush
This painting stores a memory of how the junior year friendship that was created through sports has lasted; we came in as freshmen liveros, training at the same outside league, fighting through slow improvements, learning together how to become the best libero, helping each other to push each other to limits as we compete for the “starting position”. But despite that “competition,” the friendship never became separated. This particular moment captures years of collaborative practice, competition, and silent motivation that have forged us into standing next to each other on the court—no hate but true friendship and passion that can be seen through this painting.
Song that represents = Memories Team NY
The Final Set
Pencil, drwaing paper
This piece reflects the moment when the high school sporting journey comes to an end. The routine I set for myself, the competition I experienced since 8th grade, all come down to one singular match. Volleyball wasn’t just a sport to me, like everyone says about sports, but it was something that shaped who I was, along with music, throughout my entire high school experience. But as I reached senior year, it felt like I was finally stepping into the role that I had admired from afar. Looking at the class of 2023, where I keep reminding myself I have enough time, and admiring the seniors, it came down to one single match of the season. The last warmups, the last moments on the court, all those feelings carried on my shoulder, making it challenging to move around freely.
This piece mainly focuses on the song “Lily of the Valley” by Daniel that captures the transitions from who I was to who I’ve become. Having a single song represent my 5-year journey in volleyball.
The Space Between Me and Tomorrow
Charcoal, Soft Paste on Drawing Paper
This art piece reflects the dream that I carried since I was little. I was always intrigued by cars and hoped one day I would be able to sit in the driver’s seat instead of the passenger seat. But as twelve years passed in the blink of an eye, those dreams became reality as I sat behind the wheel, driving to my own destination instead of having to ask my mom to take me. The blurred roa captures the shift and transition from fantasy to reality, showing how quickly life moves. Moreover, the display shows the daily song that I listen to when I drive, which allows me to complete “driving. No matter how far the driving is, either five minutes or one hour, I always need to turn my music on to feel “completed”.
Between Songs and Streets
Charcoal, Soft Pastel on Drawing Paper
This artwork captures the quiet peace that music takes me. Space that feels entirely my own, where the world around me darkens and silence through the power of music. Chaos comes in so many ways, yet no matter what I feel, music has helped me recover, reflect, and steady myself. The lyric from “Boy” by Sejin shows that the struggle of carrying heavy pressure while still moving forward is something many of us have felt, whether in academics or day-to-day life. But the song helps us take that weight that we all have to help us feel light and free.
Memories that stays in the picture
Acrylic Paint, Canvas, Acrylic Paint Brush
This piece represents the idea that, as we grow, the small details we take pictures of, who we hang out with, and the memories we replay are like watching six episodes of a K-drama. But the memories we replay in our heads feel like we’re watching a new movie we already know the ending to and wish we could be there in the moment. I do agree when people say, “memories hurt the most”, I can agree to it as we grow up, we know everything we do is left as “memories”, and the reality that we can’t be kids anymore, we can’t be teenagers anymore, those are left behind by the songs that we used to listen to all together. In this piece, I used the television and a bright color to illustrate the “photographic memories” of the scene, with the television's background blurriness to convey the fading effect and movie effect, just like Avengers: Endgame, when all the soldiers came out of the ring. The song that relates to this piece is “When I get old” by Christopher and Chung Na. The connection between being young and doing the things we did when we were younger is reminded and sung in this song: “It feels like we’re stuck inside a picture frame.. These memories never fade away.”
Hanja Traditional Hope Collection Hoodie Red
Color Pencil and Pen
This hoodie was designed after being inspired by the song “Chanel (Feat. Park Bom” by MC Mong. As someone living in Korea, I can tell which international school a student attends just by looking at their outfits. Most international school students in Korea often wear Chrome Hearts, Stussy, Supreme, and Bape, which is why the hoodie I designed draws on all these brands in unique ways. Moreover, I wanted to represent Korean tradition through the “Hanja,” a traditional Korean-Chinese lettering used in the dynasties before Hangul, which translates to “Hope” and “Chance.” The idea was inspired by the song, which explores taking chances and hoping. The logo uses several “seven” because they symbolize luck and perfection. Additionally, the washed-out light red is used to represent the Korean emperor's dynasty color and the Hanbok they wore.
CLASSIC.Brown Hoodie
Color Pencil, Pencil
Try On (Model 1)
This was the process after making the hoodie design, in which the mannequin tried on the part of the hoodie I made. I made it seem as if I would typically dress and pose to make it as realistic as possible, without using a blender—the color of Classic. Hoodie has changed, as I was able to find a better color that better represents the traditional color scheme of the international school.
Unlike the Hanja Traditional hoodie, I wanted to go with a new/modern hoodie design that runs across the word CLASSIC. From the front and back. The design with the sketch was the original idea, as well as what came to mind while listening to “Gone” by JUSTHIS. Despite the lyric having a different meaning, the beat of the song made me think of a more modern design, since the music is a sad song. Still, the traditional Korean sad music called “ballade,” which is a slower and emotional music, but ‘JUSTHIS’ changed the original concept of sad song with more of a rap in Korean society, making me want to use a different color and a distinct design concept compared to most other hoodie designs created by various brands.
Color Pencil
About me
Name
Alexander Kang.
What art do I mainly focus on?
Fine art: pencil, color pencil, paint, charcoal
Fashion Design: Clothing
What does art mean to me?
Art isn’t just a way for me to get into college; it’s something that allows me to show my creativity and finally let my creativity lead the way instead of always thinking logically or following something that was “instructed to me”. It's a choice we make ourselves, one we can make freely. I love relating music to my art pieces, which lets me continue working and relive the memories that I made with my friends.
