Julie Abao is currently in her freshman year and has a great interest in art. She constantly focuses on improving and challenging herself. She has completed several compelling art pieces at Heritage High School and has been recognized as a stand out artist.
Recently, she won first place in the 2024-2025 National PTA Contest, the prompt was “Accepting Imperfection.” Abao perceived the prompt as “not only embracing your positive traits, but also your negatives.” It’s about being aware of your negative traits, but believing you can improve and become your best self. While she was completing this prompt, she was thinking of various ways to represent the theme in her art while adding her own meaning to it. She thought a character holding a spark of life and color would represent it perfectly because the spark would represent the character’s accepting soul, symbolizing the theme “Accepting Imperfection.” She associates sparks with freedom, comparing them to fireworks because they are chaotic and lively. Life can be chaotic at times, and by accepting your flaws, your soul will be set “free.”
When given a prompt, she always tries to add her own twist. Abao says that she wants to be able to create something that is uniquely her own. She constantly aims to exceed her own expectations. Not only does she complete the assignment, but she uses it as a test of her abilities and understanding. Always striving to have a creative view of the prompt, Abao states, “I try to think of ways that I can stand out, put my heart into it, and show that I truly care about it.”
“To create art is a way of expressing myself and my identity,” said Abao; she believes art reflects how a person thinks and allows them to show how they perceive the world around them by translating it into something more personal. It gives Abao the chance to be as creative as she pleases with no limits. Through her art, she is able to get her point across without having to speak.
Julie Abao’s art style is unique because instead of focusing on perfection, she embraces her mistakes and incorporates them in her art. She claims that she has received many comments on how “chaotic” her art is, but instead of letting that hold her back, she includes that in her art. To make her work stand out, she uses her distinct art style to her advantage. Different materials and textures used in her art make it identifiable. For example, colors are used to represent different emotions, with orange and blue being commonly used. She claims that “everyday colors are boring, and I barely see any bold colors in the world anymore.”
She loves the satisfactory feeling of completing her work. Once she completes it, she knows she has something from which to be proud. Additionally, she wishes her art had the same impact on others as it does on herself. Still developing, she claims that you can never reach full potential because there’s always room to advance. “I was hungry for improvement and growth, and I wish to have the same effect on people,” explains Abao. Adding on, she is most happy when people feel inspiration from her work.
Ever since she was a child, she’s been fascinated by art. Abao demonstrated her love for art: “I can’t imagine myself without it. It’s a part of who I am.” She expressed enjoying the concept of stories and characters coming to life and sees herself continuing to create as an animator in the future. Examples of how she’d like to animate are “The Spider Verse” movies and the popular animated series “Arcane,” which are also the inspiration for her art style.
Julie Abao’s artwork highlights the artistic community at Heritage High School, and her pieces will leave a lasting impact on Heritage High School’s students.
Photos of Julie Abao’s art provided by her
