Sophia Hou, Boardwalk Talks No. 2
Sophia Hou, an artist and violinist.
The interviewer called sixteen-year-old Sophia Hou the evening before Thanksgiving, while school was out. Hou attends Richard Montgomery High School in Maryland, where she’s enrolled in the rigorous International Baccalaureate diploma program—a curriculum based in a holistic, liberal arts philosophy.
Her speech flows rapidly, without much pause, like a trial attorney defending her client (In addition to her artistic and musical pursuits, she’s a member of her school’s mock trial team, which, in recent years, has won the state championship twice). Much of her art contains a clear message she wants to send out to society—art, for her, is often a tool to express her personal beliefs on social issues. In “Holy Cow,” she explores the tension in society between reverence of objects and the wasteful consumerist attitude. “Like, ‘Oh, there’s this really beautiful sightseeing place with all those trees,’” she said. “Those trees are so beautiful. Yet we waste so much paper in a month. Do we really hold these trees to such a high value? Or do we just say that?”
Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about where you grew up and how your surroundings influenced your interest in art.
Hou: I grew up fairly interested in art. I remember doing a lot of sketches as a kid. I joined art class relatively young, around five or six years old, and I feel like from then, it just grew from there. It never felt like a chore to me.
Interviewer: Did anyone in your family, school or community encourage this creativity?
Hou: I feel like my parents were always very supportive, they brought me to the art classes, which I feel like is a big commitment. I have two other siblings, and they have commitments as well. And so when they set a time outside to support my interests, I feel grateful.
Interviewer: Besides art, what other hobbies or activities do you partake in that you feel shape your identity today?
Hou: I'm definitely very into music. I like playing violin, and I feel like that is also an outlet for my creative aspirations. I enjoy baking too, but I feel it's just like a fun thing.
Interviewer: At 16, you already have a very distinct artistic voice. What do you think has shaped it the most so far?
Hou: I feel like my cultural identity, mostly. I feel like having immigrant parents and experiencing that first-generation worldview has really helped shape my voice. I feel like, with a lot of my artworks, I try to focus on my cultural identity and how it's very different from other people, how there's that in-between, having immigrant parents and then growing up in a different country from where they did. It feels dissonant. It's something that I keep on grappling with.
Interviewer: How do you usually find the inspiration to first begin a piece?
Hou: Usually, it’s something that I kind of see or maybe something I read. With “Holy Cow,” it was something that came up in school. In English, we were talking about “The Great Gatsby,” which focuses a lot on the hollowness of wealth. And I feel like that was the catalyst for me to explore more deeply the idea of consumerism. How does it affect the food industry? Or how does it affect how we view our values?
Interviewer: What mediums do you usually work with?
Hou: It’s progressed a lot. I used to only work with graphite, and then I slowly progressed into color. Right now, my favorite medium to work with is oil, because I just feel like it blends very smoothly. It's very easy to control. Instead of watercolor, where you usually have to manipulate it a lot to get something you want.
Interviewer: Are there any artists you feel have a very big influence on your work?
Hou: I definitely really like Norman Rockwell. I’m currently researching him for a school project. I feel like the way he portrays everyday life and storytelling through his art is definitely very inspiring. And I also really like his art style. I feel like the way he draws characters is very well expressed. They have a lot of unique facial expressions. That's something I definitely want to work on in my art.
Interviewer: For the artist statement of “Holy Cow,” you mentioned this tension between reverence and consumerism. You’ve already talked about how you got into this idea of consumerism, but what sparked this interest in reverence?
Hou: I feel like with nature in our society, a lot of the time we try to hold it to a very high value. Like, ‘Oh, there’s this really beautiful sightseeing place with all those trees. And even with this attraction to nature, we still destroy it. Those trees are so beautiful. Yet we waste so much paper in a month. Do we really hold these trees to such a value? Or do we just say that?
Interviewer: Did anything surprise you while you were making this piece?
Hou: While I was thinking about painting the labels, I was going to do them originally with a traditional medium, like on paper or canvas. But I was thinking about it more, and I felt like doing it digitally expressed more of the artificiality that is core to the message of the painting.
Interviewer: What are you excited to experiment with next?
Hou: This was my first actual mixed media art piece, and I definitely want to include multiple mediums within future pieces.
