by KAYLA GROHMAN
Audrey Lin has been creating art for as long as she can remember, and now she’s using her ability to do good.
Not only is Lin a senior, but she is also a WOW, so her connection with Chadwick extends all the way back to when she was a little kid.
For her, growing up in the Chadwick community has also meant growing up around access to creative mediums and artistic opportunities.
“I know it’s cheesy,” Lin admits, “but I feel like there’s never been a time where I have not been doing art. It’s always been such an integral part of my identity and how people see me.”
Lin has been honored often for her outstanding and impactful art pieces. Her work can be found on her website: https://www.landofaudz.com.
While the activity may have started as a hobby for Lin, it has turned into an opportunity. Doodles and sketches have become elaborate pieces and modes for creative expression.
In particular, Lin is closely connected with her Asian identity, and she circles back to it for inspiration—not only for pieces, but also for ways that she can connect with her community.
Illustrating her own experiences and the experiences of her family is one way Lin reaches out to the wider Asian-American Pacific=Islander community.
“I feel very inclined to create about my identity in authentic ways, so it permeates a lot of my art,” she said. “I’m contributing to a very sparse narrative, I would say, and telling my stories and my family’s stories helps further representation.”
By using her art and creativity to spread her stories and experiences, Lin hopes to spark conversations about culture and identity, while also inspiring others to do the same.
As her art has evolved, so has her passion for sharing her culture.
“If others do the same, it becomes this rich and diverse narrative which encompasses so many perspectives and becomes more beautiful in that sense.”
This activism isn’t something that Lin takes lightly.
Along with navigating the challenges of high school, she’s also been running a well-established art show.
In 2021, Lin started the CACTA Art Show (Celebrating the AAPI Community Through Art) as a reaction to the huge rise in Asian hate fueled by the COVID pandemic.
The show included a wide variety of mediums, such as photography, digital art, sketches and animations.
While the art show displayed the incredible talent of many young artists, it also was a safe space to share complicated emotions related to AAPI identity.
“I wanted to give other people the space and opportunity to both showcase and celebrate the beauty of their identities and cultures, while the world was bent on victimizing us for how we looked,” Lin said. “It has been such a rewarding experience for me, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing how art can bring communities together.”
Lin had her second successful CACTA show in January 2023. The third CACTA event is currently on display at the Peninsula Center Library in Rolling Hills Estates until Feb. 22.
The CACTA shows serve as a chance for Lin to connect to the broader Los Angeles AAPI community and are also great opportunities for Chadwick students to showcase their art.
Some of the pieces highlighted in Lin’s past CACTA shows included work by Chadwick alums Kinsey Ho ‘22 and Jada Nakagawa ‘23, as well as current students: junior Richard Zheng, freshman Kevin Wang and Middle School student Harvey Shen.
These are just some people who worked alongside Lin to bring both their stories and the experiences of the Chadwick AAPI community to light. For more information on the CACTA Art Show: https://www.celebratingaapi.art/
As graduation looms and Lin looks ahead to her journey with art beyond Chadwick, she hopes to bring the same passion, energy and activism to her work.
She also hopes to pursue a career where she can utilize that energy to create impactful pieces of art that are available to the larger AAPI community.
There is no doubt that Lin will keep creating after she graduates from Chadwick.
“I’ve never considered a career path that doesn’t somehow have to do with creating,” she said. “It’s never occurred to me to do anything else. I love creating, I love telling stories, and I would love to keep doing that in the future.”
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