By Clara Chalmers

Angelina Qin is notorious among the Morven campus for her keen debating skills and eager interest in current, generally politically based, events. However, this well versed academic also maintains an unprecedented creative side, a personality quirk prominent throughout her entire life.

Although studious, Angelina is known to doodle chronically -- on homework assignments, tests, and really any readily available medium. Her innovative mindset was evident even in infancy, as illustrated by Angelina’s first art-related memory. At four years old, her father, detecting his daughters tendency to draw in place of homework, wisely registered her in art class.

It was within one of these lessons that she was bestowed with a haphazard burst of inspiration, subsequently dipping her face within a pot of paint and then, to complete the effect, a canvas. Irrefutable proof that it can take only seconds to produce a masterpiece. This incident epitomizes Angelina’s style: unique, slightly startling, and in constant state of fluctuation. Inspired by traditional Chinese watercolor and acrylic, as well as the contradicting style of Disney’s cartoon-ish quality. Fragments of techniques -- picked up at museums, art shows, and from her own art teacher -- are incorporated into Angelina’s multi layered digital art creations.

She, although predominantly a cartoon artist, also experiments with realistic methods. Her drawings have also evolved from leisurely doodles in a sketchbook to serve several purposes, such as a upcoming art show downtown, past commissions from a Wentworth teacher, and expressions of activism inspired by women's day. Angelina insists, however, that her art is more personal and not intended to make a drastic impact on the public. “Art is just another way of expressing myself,” she affirms.

In the past, Angelina has been identified as the “artist” by peers, but has adopted a more quiet creative personality since entering high school, aiming alternatively to take a scientific or mathematical major in university. This does not imply that art has “taken a back seat,” so to speak, but it has become a pastime of a more personal nature. She claims no philosophical convictions concerning the process of creativity, but offers a succulent piece of advice for aspiring artists. According to Angelia, who may be dubbed a perfectionist in respect to academics, mistakes are not as detrimental in art, but, on the contrary, a natural part of the process. More often than not, what comes across as a blunder can lead, alternatively, to unforeseen heights, the key being to eliminate any sense of foreboding.

In the upcoming school year, Angelina intends to amplify her creative idiosyncrasies, and enroll within Collingwood’s art program. This resolution was made to enforce her identity as a artist and hopefully instill a long term dedication, as, in spite of her multifarious interests, Angelina intends to maintain her creativity throughout her entire life, confidently affirming utter, and complete, passion.