2025 Senior Art Show

Bear Creek Palettes

An Exhibition of Perspectives, Personality, and Passion

Gallery Picket Fence Art Studio, 14700 148th Ave NE, Woodinville

Exhibition March 11 – March 14, 2025

Details The exhibit is open Tuesday, March 11, 2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., and Thursday, March 13, 4:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Artist Reception Friday, March 14, from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

What do teens of today think about? What affects our youth so profoundly it alters the way they think, the lens they look through, and the art they create? Come and see the perspectives of four diverse personalities, each a passionate student-artist exploring her thoughts through visual form.

This combined exhibition by Advanced Studio Art students features the works of seniors Anhui Ang, Lulu Ji, Ainsley Keith, and Lucy McDonough. Continue to see a sneak peek of the artists' work and read their statements.

Alive

by Anhui Ang

Dance has always defined me in a way words cannot. It conveys emotions, ideas, and events but requires discipline, courage, and passion. After building a foundation in ballet and pursuing an eight-year career in rhythmic gymnastics, dance had depreciated into a physically and mentally toiling job, forcing me to step back and reevaluate.

My series is inspired by the Swan Lake ballet: a classical tragic love story expressed through detailed and cathartic choreography. The light-hearted elegance of the Dance of the Little Swans contrasting from the intensity of the Black Swan pas de deux evokes warmth, longing, and disappointment from the audience. The emotions from the ballet are not alien to those of the human experience, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the piece. This relatability inspired me to use ballet as my foundation of expression. The black and white charcoal coupled with streaks of silver reflects the persistence and elegance of ballet; the position of the dancer reflects the emotion.

In a black and white world with the perfect and imperfect, many people feel a desire to hide themselves out of fear of inability. But I’ve learned that making a mistake is better than constantly asking what if—after all, my mistakes are a part of me too. Ballet has taught me to accept every aspect of myself and to love what I do. Dancing without passion is like not dancing at all. Thus, living without passion is like not living at all.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from dance, it’s that without love, it’s meaningless. Dancing with love requires letting go of perfectionism and second thoughts. But if it’s all for the moments when the music melts with my movements, making me feel truly alive, I would dance forever.

Remnants

by Lulu Ji

Faded faces. Half-remembered conversations. Time is a thief, stealing away the details of moments we once cherished. Yet, these fragments carry weight, emotion, and meaning even in their incompleteness. In this series, I want to explore the bittersweet nature of forgotten memories: both the joy they once brought and the sorrow as they inevitably fade away.

Each piece serves as a window into a past that is both familiar and foreign, where figures dissolve into silhouettes. The prominent white silhouettes and butterflies that fly through each painting act as both ghosts of the past and symbols of transformation, where time reshapes and redefines even our most vivid experiences. The butterflies, delicate and fleeting, echo the fragility of memory, fluttering between presence and absence. They symbolize how memories, like butterflies, fly through our minds: sometimes landing for a brief, vivid moment, only to take flight again, leaving behind both beauty and longing.

Whether it’s the flash of a night scene with my friends, the motorcycle of my grandpa’s, or the calm, breezy drive alongside my mom, these works invite viewers to reflect on their own fragments of memories, not to reclaim the whole but to find meaning in the remnants. Where fleeting moments may seem ordinary at the time, they grow heavy with meaning as the years pass and carry the weight of a story, urging us to cherish the complex emotions and connections they bring to our stories.

These are the remnants of what remains and what slips away. These chapters and albums of our lives define who we are and once were. They are both a mirror and a reminder that the most vibrant moments of life can transform into whispers.

Perspective

by Ainsley Keith

Fogged up windows, cars speeding past, surroundings a blur: this is how we spend most of our lives. As a society, we feel we must get to the next place, finish the next task, and achieve the next accomplishment as quickly as possible. We rarely look in the rearview mirror or out the windows, we just want to look forward—moving ahead.

I have often fallen into this trap personally. When I move through life as fast as I can, everything is a blur. Hardships in my life make my windows completely dark, my rapid acceleration blends any goodness—any light—into the darkness. My windows are just brush strokes of blue, grey, and black, materializing a claustrophobic stress around me.

However, as I have matured, I have come to see it is essential to pause, to get out of the car, and to look around. My instincts tell me not to, as no progress can occur if the car is stopped, nevertheless my heart and mind are at rest when I open the car door. Brush strokes of orange and pink surround an expansive horizon, the world is at peace calling me to stop and appreciate it. There is goodness, there is light, and there is hope outside of my narrow perspective.

Eventually, I do need to get back into the car. My life requires me to continue working, making progress, and putting my foot on the pedal. However, this time I continue with intentionality. I look at the past through the rear view and see darkness, acknowledging it but continuing to move forward into the light at a slower pace. I am able to look around and see both darkness and light, despair and hope.

Life is never perfect, but it is beautiful. It is up to us whether we choose to see that beauty. Sometimes we need to take the wheel, slow down, and appreciate the view out the window to gain perspective, seeing the bigger picture. We can then move along with hope and perspective, appreciating the journey and the past with intentionality.

Facing Fears

by Lucy McDonough

When I was younger, I lived without fear, for the most part. Whether it was playing fantasy games with siblings or dressing up just for the fun of it, I spent every moment living up an idyllic and whimsical childhood. The only fears I faced were the little things, like heights or spiders. But once all my siblings started school, a new fear began to fester: the fear of growing up, the fear of change. It scared me to no end. I didn’t want to lose the whimsical day to day I had. So, I pushed it off, trying to hide that fear through ignorance. In my first piece, I showcase my childhood whimsy through the vivid green bush, my bright red boots and my flowy, red dress. But even in the brightness, hidden within the bush, there is a hand, the fear of growing up, of change, slowly creeping in. I depict my younger self turned away from the hand. “Ignorance is bliss.” I lived by this whenever the fear came, hoping it would go away.

It didn’t work. Fear only grew and as middle school hit, my biggest fears came true. My oldest brother left for college. It changed everything. I tried to smile through it, but that change hurt. Then of course there was that whole pandemic thing. I secluded myself, both physically, shown by me hiding in the gray hoodie, as well as mentally. I opened doors to the negative, to fear and anxiety. I let it control me, blinding me to reality. My second piece shows my fears and anxieties: the hand, which is blinding me from reality and instead making me only see what my fears believe is truth. In contrast to the stark white hand in my first piece, the dark gray hand complimented by the deep blue background furthers the domineering presence of fear in my life. In my darkest times, it seemed as though my thoughts were the only “light” I could cling to, no matter how negative they were. But that wasn’t true.

It took a lot of work, but I was finally able to get out of my head, out of my self-centered fears. Truth came in the form of friends and family helping me, a new light shining brighter than my fears. Of course, even though I was able to get control back and away from my negative thoughts, my fears of change, of growing up, those will always be there. However, I’ve learned to embrace those fears. In my final piece, I depict my newfound control. The olive-green dress, which at first glance looks like any old dress, actually showcases my growth in facing my fears. It isn’t a dress I had ever envisioned myself in, yet here I depicted myself wearing it. Like my younger self, I’ve once again turned my back on my fears. Unlike my first piece though, my fear is distinctly seen, not hiding away, but it is cracking and breaking. I’ve learned that while “ignorance is bliss,” letting my fears completely take over is utterly destructive. I still have fears, but I don’t let them control me. I have taken what I have gone through, from fears of growing up to fears of any change and learned from them. So, even if it is still difficult to go through, I am ready to face changes head on. I’m ready for challenges, ready to grow.

My series “Facing Fears" shows how we all experience fear in one way or another, but that we can’t let these fears control us. We have to accept that they are a part of who we are and then keep moving. I hope that my pieces can bring a sense of peace to those who have gone through similar things or are currently experiencing this, and for them to see that it gets better and it’s okay to make mistakes. We just have to laugh at our mistakes, learning from them in order to get better and be able to move forward.

About the Author

Trinity Osborn has been a member of Bear Creek's faculty since 2011 and feels blessed to be a daily part in encouraging her students to look at things from an artist's perspective. She challenges them to see things that others might overlook, to notice details that make something ordinary...extraordinary, and to gain the understanding of being true observers. Her prayer is that students would be inspired by the truth and beauty in the world which God has created and ultimately share that beauty through their artwork. She hopes that her students will remember their wonderful uniqueness and God-purposed creativity within, as they shape their lives accordingly for the service of His kingdom.

Mrs. Osborn enjoys traveling, sketching, and anything to do with the outdoors. Trinity is married and has two children. She holds a B.A. Studio Art and Photography from George Mason University Institute of the Arts and completed her NSIC Natural Scientific Illustration from University of Washington.