My favorite piece in the portfolio is the self-portrait. It is an artwork I made for a class. The assignment was to create a painting that tells a story. This artwork stands out because it depicts my heritage and the emotions of stress and anxiety I went through during 2020-2021. In the foreground of the piece, I am dressed in traditional Chinese attire called Hanfu. Even though I have become more Americanized over the years, I still stay true to my roots. The traditions I follow in my strict Asian household have never changed, and it influenced who I have become. My Chinese culture is something I am very proud of. I made this artwork during my junior year of high school when everything was remote due to the pandemic. My parents' expectations were even more overwhelming during this period. Like many Asian parents, my family forced me to study long hours with bulky SAT workbooks, on top of keeping a minimum GPA of 95 in my classes. I felt very stressed and depressed, as depicted with the symbolism of the broken shards of glass coming towards me in the midground of the painting. In the artwork, I also made the artwork convey positivity at first glance. I did this to replicate my actions during 2020. I would pretend to be happy and cheerful in front of others because I did not want my emotions to affect anyone else. In the background of the artwork, I decided to bring the topic back to my culture. The lotus flower is a symbol of Buddhism. It has a literal meaning of rising above muddy water to reach enlightenment. I always found the meaning very similar to a phrase my parents told me when I was a child. "Work hard and push yourself as a child, and you will have a great future." Throughout my childhood and especially in 2020-2021, I tried to follow that advice and the way of the lotus flower. I told myself that I needed to push myself as much as I could in school and during SAT study sessions so I could get into a prestigious college and find a successful career path. The narrative I tried to communicate through the piece was not the only reason the self-portrait was my favorite artwork. I enjoyed my comical time working through the piece because this was my second time doing a self-portrait and my first time painting one. I am glad I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and chose to do a portrait, even though I am terrible at drawing figures. Although I managed to cover all of my mistakes, the process of matching and blending the skin was very tedious. Halfway through the process, I ripped off layers of paint from the face after adding on too many layers. I went through many skin tones to finally get one similar to mine. I also enjoyed the process of painting lotus flowers and scraping on textured cracks in the glass with a palette knife. They were definitely within my comfort zone. Overall it was a great learning experience where I could communicate through my art.