People often say that it takes a village to raise a child, and this is true of my immigrant experience. My community welcomed and helped my family at our most difficult time without asking for anything in return. I am grateful for the support we received, and helping people bond through art is one of the ways I show my gratitude. 

Art is a very important hobby of mine; I paint to relieve stress and express emotions. Art means a lot to me; I have been painting ever since I can remember. I draw when I have free time. Sometimes I am very busy, but I draw at least twice a week. What I am most interested in drawing are people and nature, and I often combine those in the same drawing. I have liked to travel since I was a kid, but traveling became difficult during the pandemic. Since I couldn’t travel physically, I found another way to travel; I can travel by drawing about places I want to go. I enjoy drawing about travel because it allows me to visit places I can’t go in reality.  Being able to put whatever on paper and having control over the setting and character is why I like art. This freedom and control are something I don’t experience much in real life, so I enjoy it greatly. I started drawing about the physical places I had visited before, such as San Francisco and Hayward City Hall, then shifted to illustrating the imaginary travels of my mind. I actively switched between a wide range of mediums: pencil, watercolor, acrylic, and digital illustration. I experiment with different compositions and blending of different artistic styles, including Chinese ink painting, anime/manga, and Western naturalistic illustration. For instance, most of the characters in my drawing are in anime style and colored with watercolor. With the traditional forms of media, I usually draw about objects and places that I saw either in the real world or in movies. While with digital art, I usually draw views that I have never seen in the real world or in movies. With digital art, I have more options for colors and tools. Digital art is harder than traditional mediums because everything is more malleable, but this gives me more freedom, so I enjoy doing digital illustrations. 

When my family and I immigrated to the US eight years ago, no one in my family spoke much English, and I struggled both academically and socially. I had trouble fitting into this new environment of a strange language and of stranger cultures. On the weekends, we didn’t know where to go, so my parents often took us to the Hayward City Library. My previous impression of libraries was cheerless because libraries in China were dull. But the Hayward City Library was warm and welcoming, and after a few visits, I fell in love with it. My siblings and I read books and made new friends there. At home, a neighbor brought us homemade Christmas cookies and explained the Christmas tradition in America. Another invited us into her backyard to pick fruits and shared her gardening passion with us. Within such a tightly-knit community, my family felt welcomed despite our language and cultural differences. 

Later, as my English improved, I wanted to give back to the community using my artistic talent. To bring back the human interaction that was deprived by COVID-19, in January 2021, I established Art Together, an art club for children housed within the non-profit organization Love Thy Neighbor. There are fifty members between the ages of 5-12; we meet monthly on Zoom to draw for two hours on a topic of my choosing. Teaching kids to draw online is much more difficult than teaching them to do so in person. To improve my lessons, I created a group chat with their parents to hear feedback and to provide suggestions on practicing art outside class. I gained experience from this art club and helped my mother establish her art studio called Yueming Art Studio in August of 2022. Many local kids, even adults, came to the art studio, and I helped teach the kids in my free time. My interactions with children through art made me realize that every child is born an artist, and I want to help them explore their own unique style. 

In the spring of 2023, I went back to the Hayward City Library and presented to the library committee my idea of hosting an art class on the artist Miro. The committee approved my idea and agreed to sponsor Art at the Library: Meet Miro in 2023 on June 24 at the Main Library and June 27 at the Weekes Branch Library. I started recruiting volunteers through Art Together and Yueming Art Studio; with eight talented volunteers, this event was very successful. Over forty-five people attended, ranging from age three to sixty. We made arts and crafts that were showcased in the library after the event. After the event, Hayward Library invited me to host another art event called Planet Holiday on December 8th, 2023.

Through the successful design, organization, and hosting of these art activities, I have become a permanent part of this community since our arrival eight years ago. I used art to bring together people from different backgrounds and help them integrate into this community. It is essential to be inclusive and welcoming in a community with immigrants because different cultures can complement each other to promote diversity. I will continue to help my community in the future, not only because of the help they offered my family, but also to help other new arrivals who might be in need like we once were. I am especially grateful for having a background in art to allow me to do this. Also, my background in the creative arts makes me a stronger student in the STEM field because I do not believe in stereotypes like ​​science is for nerds with glasses, and I can also be more creative when looking for a solution to a scientific problem.