Combatting Art Block With Her Passion
FSSA Senior Hui Ting Luan stands beside her painting in the school’s atrium.
Hui Ting Luan sits quietly in the empty art classroom, with a small paintbrush in hand, staring at a blank canvas, as the sunset from the cloudy October sky spreads across her and the canvas. She takes a small dab of orange ink, and moves it into another bowl with water – mixing the two parts to make a solution as bright as the sunset out the window. She lifts her angled brush to the canvas, and hairs from the brush trickle and infest the dry, cotton-paper surface, dashing the tangerine color to all directions. For Hui Ting, painting and drawing is not just a hobby, it’s a form of self-expression.
For many years, has been drawing in the medium of mixed media, creating paintings, featuring in school art shows and even creating posters that she was selected personally to do by her teachers for school performances.
“I love using multiple mediums when I create art. It feels so free,” the 17 year old states. However, the one thing she can say can stop her work from being made is something she often experiences “art block.”
“It’s hard. You can think really hard and you want to make something unique but you can’t.” she says. “It has to make sense. it can take me five days before an idea can hit me. Sometimes I don’t know how to put an idea down on paper because I want to make something really special.”
Thankfully, the young artist eventually gets out of the art-blocking pit of demise. These days, Hui Ting enjoys doing portrait work, and using any brush, marker, pen or pencil that can leave a mark on her canvas.
— by Philip Errico ’16