Artist of the week Julie Wang (sophomore) said she was given sketchbooks when her parents decided that the drawings on the wall had to come to an end — now, she just opened her 13th sketchbook.
Wang’s art primarily consists of graphic and traditional drawings and sketches. However, she said that she works in various mediums and wants to create with anything that she comes across.
“When I get my hands on clay, I just like to make things,” Wang said. “And then I also do multimedia a lot too. It’s just whatever I can find in my room, whatever art supplies I dig up [when] I’m cleaning my room.”
Wang said her career in commissioned art began during the COVID-19 pandemic, as she began designing for the non-profit organization AppilyDay. Since coming to Occidental, Wang said she has been hired by Oxy Design Services (ODS) to create commissioned pieces for on-campus organizations.
Wang said ODS uses a form for people to request a flyer, logo or poster, which helps the team distribute and understand projects.
“After [the form], we send out an initial email that’s asking for either an in-person or on-Zoom meeting so I can talk to whoever’s in charge of this commission, and then we can work out a clearer vision for the design,” Wang said. “And then I’ll just start seeing them everywhere, like when there’s a club fair or any type of academic fair.”
Another ODS employee Ruby King (sophomore) said Wang’s art style varies greatly between her creative and professional work.
“Julie has a very illustrative style, but she’s really good at the corporate, logo kind of work. She’s very good at professional stuff,” King said.
Wang said she also accepts commissioned pieces from her peers and professors.
Senior Dance Instructor Professor Francisco Martinez said he commissioned Wang for a poster for the theater department’s Festival of Solos.
“I came with the date, time and where,” Martinez said. “I gave her that information, and the first draft was perfect — colorful, to the point, unique.”
Martinez said he is excited to work with Wang again at the end of this semester.
“It was the best partnership,” Martinez said. “One of the very best partnerships that I’ve had.”
King said Wang’s contributions to the ODS team are invaluable, both artistically and personably.
“I think she knows what her opinion is on something, but the way that she approaches it is really good for a client because we’re really reliant on client opinions,” King said. “The way that she frames it to a client comes across in this really positive way.”
According to Wang, seeing her works displayed on campus is a unique experience.
“I thought if I create a design and then it just goes off into the world, I’d never see it again,” Wang said. “But sometimes it comes back to me and it’s like, ‘Hey, who did that?’”
Maya Reddy (sophomore), who works for the cognitive science department’s Canine Intelligence Lab, said she commissioned Wang for a logo for the lab.
“I [told her that she] could try anything, maybe a dog brain,” Reddy said. “I just threw out some ideas, and she was able to generate at least 10 ideas.”
Wang and Reddy took a calculus class together, in which Reddy said she saw how Wang can incorporate art into her academics.
“We took calc two together, and it was really hard to memorize all these series,” Reddy said. “So she actually made a whole paper, and for each series, she drew a little picture to help memorize it.”
According to Reddy, Wang’s academic and artistic mindsets appear to differ.
“I think art to her is more of a relaxing, creative thing, while school is more intense,” Reddy said.
As a psychology major on the pre-med track, Wang said art is one of her biggest passions in life, but she was not ready to adjust her academic ambitions to focus solely on art.
“I also just realized how helpful it is to visualize STEM concepts through art,” Wang said. “Because when I take notes, I’m not trying to make it look pretty and organized. I’m trying to sneak in little, weird illustrations to help me learn.”
Wang said she hopes to continue to combine her passions for art and science beyond her studies.
“I’m just really glad that I’m still able to balance all of my interests,” Wang said. “For the future […] I’m just really looking for ways to blend my interest in arts, psychology and medicine. So maybe art therapy, anything that can blend unconventional methods into a hard science […] I feel like that’s a pretty unexplored discipline.”
Contact Abigail Montopoli at montopoli@oxy.edu
