Beverages bring festive fun Companies attract customers with holiday cheer Range of art forms Li expresses herself through visual, performing arts

By Melody Hu | Editor-in-Chief

Oil painting, ceramics, dance — these are just some of the art forms senior Amber Li practices. Li has been interested in the arts, painting and dancing for as long as she can remember. As she has gotten older, she has been able to further explore her passion for art in a variety of ways.

Li took her first art class when she was 5 years old and has been taking art classes inside and outside of school ever since. Outside of school, she works with a teacher on her painting and drawing skills at a studio and at school she takes AP Art.

For Li, art is a way to destress and take her mind off things in her life. She said art allows her to take a moment to herself and be creative.

“I really think art is an intimate process, and it allows me to learn about myself in a different way,” she said.

Li said she takes inspiration from her daily life and the world around her, and a common theme that runs through her work is taking well known stories and expanding on them. For example, Li creates art inspired by metaphors from Greek mythology while adding her own interpretation. Another one of her greatest sources of inspiration is Iris

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT LI’S ART

van Herpen, a Dutch fashion designer.

“Van Herpen takes an interdisciplinary approach to her designs and pushes the boundaries of art, which really inspires me,” Li said.

the DART Transit Education Student Art Contest, winning a $1,000 prize and having her art printed on a DART bus.

Aside from painting and drawing, Li is also an avid ceramicist and dancer. Li took ceramics as her fine art junior year. Additionally, she has been taking dance classes since she was 5 years old. She is a company member at the Ballet Ensemble of Texas and has played ballet roles including the snow princess in “The Nutcracker,” big swan in “Swan Lake” and the autumn fairy in “Cinderella.”

Recently, Li has looked to combine her passions for visual and performing arts. She brought a canvas to a live ballet class and painted the dancers as they took class. This allowed her to look at movement and dance in a new light.

“For me, dance is a different form of creativity, so being able to combine my two artistic passions was really interesting for me,” Li said.

Li’s artwork has been successful in a number of competitions. She has won the Best in Show Prize at the Young American Talent competition, first in the nation at the State Fish Art Competition and the Grand Prize in

In the future, Li said she hopes to continue dancing and creating art. She would like to pursue art in college through a minor or extracurriculars and is also looking to integrate art into her college major.