Junior Aiden Chen stood on stage at the Saratoga Library’s community room Aug. 27, presenting a slideshow showcasing his art and journey through bird advocacy. He spoke about the meaning and process behind making the paintings, and talked about his work to protect bird species.
The exhibition, which showcased four bird portraits among 21 other paintings, ran from Aug. 2 to Sept. 25.
“A solo exhibition is a big deal so it was pretty exciting to be exhibited,” Chen said.
As a child, Chen developed a love of both birds and art. He started doing art at age 4, and painted his first bird painting in fifth grade. In the next few years, he themed much of his art around birds, making use of a variety of mediums including oil, watercolor, and technology.
“In the past two years, I’ve picked up more interest in birds because of one winter break when I went to birdwatch and saw a really cool bird,” Chen said. “It looked like all the other birds, but it was a vagrant, meaning it usually didn’t live there. That moment drew me towards loving birds.”
By doing this exhibition, Chen said he hoped to bring more awareness to endangered bird species.
Photo: link // Caitlin Stoiber
Caption: Aiden Chen posing with council member Yan Zhao.
Chen’s journey to exhibiting his work started in Chinese Club during his sophomore year. During the Asian American and Pacific Islander art exhibition hosted by the Chinese Club in Asian American and Pacific Islander month, Chen submitted a Chinese ink piece of a cicada and foliage.
After he showed a librarian the piece that he submitted for the Chinese Club’s exhibition for Asian American Pacific Islander month, the librarian decided to let him host his own personal exhibition in the Saratoga library group study room. The theme of the exhibition, Aiden decided, would be birds and advocacy for AB 38, now a bill in the state legislature.
Between 100 million and 1 billion birds die a year due to artificial light from lamps and buildings at night, he said. Over the summer, he discovered and educated himself about AB 38, which aims to decrease light pollution. The passing of AB 38 would go a long way to preventing a lot of bird deaths.
While the AB 38 was not explicitly mentioned in his exhibition, bird conservation was illustrated through Chen’s bird portraits.
If he has time, Chen said he hopes to host another exhibition, but acknowledges the difficulty in organizing solo exhibitions.
Currently, he is working on more paintings of endangered bird species and plans to publish a picture book to advocate for their protection. He is also working with the Sierra Club, a non-profit organization founded in 1892 whose mission is to protect the planet, for the 30×30 initiative, which aims to conserve 30% lands and waters by 2030. Chen is making bird artworks for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter newsletters.
“My goal is just to do as much as possible to protect the birds,” Chen said. “You can materialize something in your mind and share it with other people. It’s a really important way to spread ideas.”
