Sophomores Elizabeth Song and Alvin Jiang were accepted to display their artwork at the Queens Borough Arts Festival. The Queens Borough Arts Festival (QBAF) is an annual contest hosted during May to display art at the Queens Museum. QBAF celebrates student work from Districts 24–30 and District 75 in visual arts, music, dance, and theater. Selected visual artworks and films were showcased at the Queens Museum on May 20, 2025, and the Performing Arts Showcase was held on May 30.
“Every year, the New York City Department of Education invites New York City students to participate in this contest,” art teacher Mr. Lee said. “For high school level, especially high school level, a lot of people want to go to art school, and then they invite our high school students to participate in this competition. And a selected student, they can get honored, which means they can write their achievements in their resume. And everyone can apply for it, so whoever wants to participate in this competition next year, let us know so we can prepare for this contest.”
According to Jiang, he and his friends wanted to build and modify a Japanese car because they not only wanted to drive with style, but also to be unique and do something that people would usually not do. Jiang explained what his art piece, Torque of Life, means to him.
“The engine, I really wanted to portray my struggles and my journey in life,” Jiang said. “Seeing how every detail in that engine, like the parts of an engine, it really goes back representing each part of my journey in life from the day I started breathing and to the day I am right now. Seeing how each part of it really impacted my life, and if you take one of those engine pieces away, representing one part of my life, it would greatly impact it a lot.”
“What inspires me to create art is definitely social media and how people around me, seeing their creativity and different unique styles, really inspires me a lot,” Jiang added. “Also the music I listen to, how creative and how different everybody is that makes music or creates art. I want to be a part of that.”
Song discussed her art piece, Echoes of My Past, and what it represents in her life.
“This jellyfish I drew represents my passion for being a marine biologist, it was my childhood dream,” Song said. “I love sea animals. It’s something I can’t accomplish because of the situation now. It also represents my deep emotions that I have.”
“Something that inspires me is my past, because my past is something I don’t want to happen again,” Song said. “I want to show that through art, because it’s my pain. It was something that got me here, and it’s something that I want to represent.”
Jiang mentioned how although he wasn’t into hyperrealism, his teacher assisted in helping him get more comfortable with the style.
“I’m not much of a hyper-realistic person,” Jiang said. “I’m more of an animator or cartoon, but my art teacher really helped me out and honestly I started enjoying realism more, seeing how every single detail and lighting really showed the emotions in my artwork.”
Jiang offered his advice for aspiring artists.
“One advice I would give them is definitely trust the process, because at first it won’t look like anything in the beginning,” Jiang said. “But I want to say trust yourself, and trust the process, and keep doing what you’re doing. Over time it will get better, and you will get better both skillfully and mentally. You will build up confidence, and your artwork and skills will definitely grow as you grow older.”
