I did not grow up with art. In rural Communist China, creativity was not praised but punished. My family, school, and society equated virtue with hard work in fields and factories—leaving no room for self-expression. Art was forbidden, meant for someone else. Maybe if I had been born in a different country or later in China’s history, it could have been mine. But in 2022, at the age of 60, I picked up a pencil for the first time and uncovered a part of myself I thought had disappeared with my youth.
What followed was my personal renaissance. I found joy in the movement of a brush, the soft exchange between light and shadow, and the challenge of translating emotions onto canvas. I poured myself into SLCC courses in oil painting and figure drawing, often producing more work than required—not out of obligation, but out of an unrelenting desire to let my talent flourish.
Now at 62, I measure time not by years left, but by the works of art still waiting to be created.

SLCC Student