Jia S. '25 Expresses Herself Eloquently Through Her Art

Jia S. ‘25 draws inspiration for her art from the impressions of life she sees around her—and within her.

“I’ve always loved art,” Jia said. “From an early age, I started going to museums with my mom, traveling a lot, and looking at art. When I’m there, I’m very engaged and I love to learn about the artist and their artwork, as well as their intention or message behind their art.”

An OES student since pre-K, she enjoyed taking art classes in Lower and Middle School. “But sophomore year was where I flipped the switch and thought, ‘I’m going to pursue art.’ It all started with a teacher of mine who's helped me through the portfolio process and supported me along the way, [Upper School Art Teacher] Dustin Price.”

“He teaches Color Design Symbol class, which I really enjoyed, and I just loved the way he would engage the students and tell us about the historical context of the art or the project that we were about to go into. He told us at the beginning that he wanted to think of us as college students and let us have access to new materials.”

Jia discovered the medium of needle felting when accompanying her mother to a yarn store, where she immediately felt a connection. “I thought, ‘I love working in new mediums. Why don’t I try it for myself?’”

Using untreated wool called “roving,” threaded through a canvas with a multi-pronged needle, this medium creates a piece of art that is multicolored and textured. “It’s unique in that you see all the textural elements of the piece, and mixing the fibers is really beautiful,” Jia said. She starts with a photograph, then transfers an image onto the canvas. Four pieces of her needle felting are currently on display at OES outside the Upper School Library.

Through this medium, Jia has explored her emotions about her adoption. She was adopted from Taiwan as an infant, and as she’s become a young adult, she has looked more deeply into her feelings about it.

In a piece called “Left on Open,” Jia shared in her artist statement:

“Born in Taiwan, I was adopted by an American family at the age of seven months. I have one photo of my birth mother holding me before she handed me over to an orphanage. I know only a few precious facts about her—her name, age, and that she was healthy. I have no information about my birth father. Over the past year, I have explored the mysteries of my identity as a transracial and transcultural adoptee through my art.

'Left On Open' is inspired by the disappointment, disregard, and emptiness I feel when someone opens my carefully posed and filtered Snapchat photo but fails to snap me back. Do they dislike me? Am I not good enough? Being “left on open” also represents my feelings and questions about my adoption. Did my mother love me? Was I not good enough for her to keep? I referenced an actual unopened snap for this piece. The flowers and butterflies in the fore and background represent how I may hide my feelings behind a beautiful, posed, and filtered facade.”

Meanwhile, in the piece “Pure Joy,” Jia wrote: “This work represents the carefree joy I felt as a child, secure in the love of my parents, brothers, and extended family. Here, I was not yet at the point in my development where I could begin to understand the circumstances of and questions raised by my adoption and how they disrupted my sense of identity.”

“Pure Joy” was recently awarded a National Scholastic Art Award Gold Medal, given to less than one percent of entries.

In “Mother's Day,” she expresses her love for her adoptive mother:

“Inspired by a bouquet of Mother's Day flowers, this work symbolizes the joy, love, and security I feel in my relationship with my mother. Through the work's subject, colors, and design, I intend for the viewer to gain a sense of hope for renewal. I live with the loss of my connection to my birth mother, but I bloom in the garden of my adoptive mother's love.”

Meanwhile, in “My Red Cape,” she finds a connection to her birth mother:

“This example of my needle-felted fiber art portrays the red velvet cape my birth mother wrapped me in before bringing me to an orphanage in Taiwan. In this piece, I, as a teenager, reach for the cape that connects me to my birth mother and the unknown details of my story.”

Exploring these feelings through her art has helped Jia gain a better understanding of them, she believes.

“Someday I might want to meet my birth mom, but I feel like I’ve been through this learning curve and feel more mature about learning about adoption and my identity.”

Jia has been accepted to the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in Boston, where she will be majoring in fine arts starting in fall 2025. She may want to be a jewelry designer or an art curator. And she may explore psychology as she is intrigued by the study of how the mind works, and really enjoyed her OES Upper School psychology class.

Jia founded the Imaginative Minds Art Gallery (IMAGOES) to help other students share their art with others.

“My belief is finding your sense of self within the art and finding your medium is the most important thing, not necessarily pursuing an idealistic final piece, or perfection, because art can be so subjective,” Jia said.