Tseng pursues life as an artist

Although many adolescents devote more than a decade to selecting a career, senior Kylie Tseng has wanted to be an artist since she was 6 years old.

From the early childhood, Tseng was influenced by her family, who are all artists of some sort. Tseng’s father and older sister took up art as a hobby while her mother pursued it as a career. Tseng’s mother is a graphic designer.

“Ever since I was in the first grade I have wanted to become an artist, and I have never changed my mind,” Tseng said.

When Tseng first began with art at the age of 4, she was interested in acrylic painting.
“I liked it because it made me feel like a professional artist even though I was very young,” she said.
As Tseng grew older, she became fond of other types of art such as drawing on paper, canvas and tablet.

“I still prefer the simple graphite pencil because with a pencil, you can do so much and you have so much control,” Tseng said. With a graphite pencil, Tseng relishes drawing abstract as well as still life.
Dedicating a vast amount of time to art, Tseng attends a two-hour art class every day except on Sundays and Mondays. Tseng even takes two classes on Saturdays. This past summer, she took classes at the Academy of Art University located in San Francisco, where she studied life drawing. In addition to drawing, Tseng is also interested in photography, serving as the Talisman yearbook staff’s head photographer.

Stephen McCue, the art teacher on campus, finds Tseng’s work “unique, creative, colorful and fabulous.”

Sharing her art and designs with the school, Tseng’s T-shirt design was voted as the senior class’s T-shirt and one of her drawings is even on the cover of this year’s student planner.

Tseng wants to major in either graphic design or animation, depending on the college she attends because she “really love colors and putting them together to make something really amazing.” “I also feel like graphic design is very useful in the real world,” said Tseng.

Currently, Tseng has seven drawings and one work in progress that she will be exhibiting in her art portfolio for colleges to view, hoping to attend an art school.

“I feel like art is the only thing I’ve really been able to concentrate on for hours,” Tseng said. “I’m pretty restless, but some days I can spend hours drawing because I feel like I’m in my own world.”
Without art in her life, Tseng has no idea where she would be. “It’s the way I think,” Tseng said. “I see things, and I think ‘Wow. I would love to draw that.’” The smallest things like an expression on a person’s face means a lot, and Tseng wishes she could stop time and capture the image.

Tseng’s favorite quality about art is the freedom to do whatever she wants. “In art, anything is possible!” Tseng said.