My name is Vivian Ming and I am a junior at Pacific Grove High School taking Honors 2D Design with Mr. Kelly. I have loved making art since an early age, and I make art to express my deepest thoughts and ideas about life and my experiences. My goal as an artist is to develop my style into conveying both abstract concepts and personal themes effectively. I enjoy using art to illustrate these ideas because I feel that sometimes the piece is more impactful than what can be said in words. My medium of choice is acrylic paint, as I have used it my entire life and I have the most experience with it. My piece is called “Built on Working Hands”. It is meant to express my experience with Chinese culture. I have been taught, especially by my family, to admire hard work. I would like to express those themes in my art. China is a country with a culture built on hard work and the working class, illustrating that in my art. My piece depicts a Chinese city street with bricks in the shapes of hands. I wanted to put an emphasis on the street, because it is meant to represent a city literally built upon the building blocks of people and their labor. I started with a base of gouache to create the initial shapes, and I created the details by layering acrylic paint. I think the process of creating my piece is similar to the meaning, building up my piece bit by bit like how China has been built up by its blocks.