Editorial Cartoons
How can the absurdity of modern American politics be expressed through art?
Art, unlike journalism or news, has the opportunity to emotionally connect with all groups of people through a single image and has been linked to history since the beginning of mankind. Not only that but throughout the 1960s and up to 1980s the Pop Art movement was an essential part of American culture. Analyzing modern American culture, politics plays a crucial role in our society today more than ever as racism and socio-economic divisions are at the forefront of the minds of many. American art and American politics are combined to create an end result: art that represents what it is to live history as it plays out day by day.
“Wrong Hat Today”
30” x 40” | Acrylic on Canvas
“Bubba Luv”
30” x 40” | Acrylic on Canvas
“Not Charlie Kirk”
30” x 40” | Acrylic on Canvas
“Bait”
24” x 36” | Acrylic on Canvas
“In Israel We Trust”
16” x 12” | Acrylic on Canvas
Semester 1 Investigation
How have marginalized groups and young people been impacted by the way adults choose to vote?
“Aligator Alcatraz”
16” x 20” | Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Canvas
This painting is about the children who have been kidnapped by ICE and wait in detention centers—specifically the Florida detention center which the painting is named after.
“Last Rites”
16” x 20” | Acrylic, Digital, Canvas
In Catholic tradition, when a person is near death a priest offers the Eucharist and a series of prayers that forgives the soul of any sins before their death–this is known as the Last Rites. My Godfather, who is a priest, told me that he has been performing these last rites more often than he can remember to people my age. “Why?” was what I asked him, and his response was that it was because they were transgender. That these children couldn’t handle the pressure put onto them by their parents, by our religion and by our society. This painting is dedicated to the friends I have lost but also the ones still living and struggling to find support because of their identity. To live and love freely will never be a sin that needs forgiving.
“ICE Water”
8.5” x 11” | Digital, Watercolor
This comic depicts reported conditions within ICE detention centers. The setting in Dilly Texas is inspired by a 16 year-old girl who was held there where she spoke of the water shortage in the facility. She had said in an interview, “We don’t get enough water. They put out a little case of water, and everyone has to run for it".
Watercolor + Oil Paintings
“Chrysi & Parker”
“Language of Flowers”
“Colorado Native”
20” x 16” | Oil Paint, Gold & Silver Leaf, on Wood Board
How have the opportunities and unique qualities that come with being a Colorado native shaped the person I have become?
In honor of the beautiful state I was born in and my parents who immigrated from Vietnam. The silver and gold leaf are an homage to Colorado’s mining history and the black-billed magpie carrying sticks and branches symbolizes the state providing for me and my family. This painting is a self portrait because I am just as much a part of Colorado as the landscape is.
8.5” x 11” | Watercolor on Paper
Submission for Calliope 2026. This painting was in collaboration with Weslie Neumeyer and the story follows two friends throughout their childhood from the perspective of the boy Parker. Long story short, it’s Christmas and Chrysi and Parker go iceskating and Parker falls through the ice and dies (sorry for the spoiler). The story is written in the format of letter detailing his regrets about their relationship.
5.3” x 7.6” | Watercolor on Paper
These flower studies were an exploration of the stylization of flowers in watercolor which captures the flow and natural imperfection all flowers possess. In the Victorian Era, gifting someone specific flowers implied certain emotions. For example, brining blue hydrangeas to someone you were dating (they didn’t use that term) meant that you were breaking up with them.