Students’ Biography
San Francisco, United States
Aaron Au, Illustration
Aaron Au is a fourth year illustration student studying towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a first generation Chinese-American, a lot of his work is influenced by Western and Eastern culture. He pulls ideas from his childhood and incorporates themes of nostalgia, play, and humor into his pieces. Growing up, he was inspired by how visual novels and comic books told stories through pictures. As an illustrator, he hopes to illuminate multicultural narratives in order to inspire others. When Au is not creating artwork, he plays the saxophone which often influences his work as well.
Madison Collins, Illustration
Madison Collins is an Illustration student from Sacramento, California. Primarily working in gouache and watercolor she creates detailed paintings that aim to present a story or convey a moment in history. Some of her previous works include an illustrated book on outrageous medical treatments throughout history and illustrating a collection of antiques passed down from her grandfather. In the future she hopes to become a full time freelance Illustrator continuing to work with themes from history.
Paloma Diaz, Illustration
Paloma Diaz is an illustrator from Dallas, Texas currently pursuing her BFA in illustration as well as a minor in Visual Studies at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California.
As a first generation student, Diaz strives to represent her heritage in the best way possible through her art making practices. Growing up surrounded by negative stereotypical assumptions about the LatinX community in Texas, she was forced to assimilate with American culture. It has become imperative for her to represent what it means to be a bisexual Latina in order to reclaim her identity. Diaz’s work is concerned with authentically incorporating diversity and intersectional feminism. She creates purposeful and aesthetically pleasing visuals in hopes of embracing the rich identity of marginalized groups.
Morgan Guerra, Photography
Morgan Guerra is San Francisco-based photographer born and raised in Southern Texas in the late 1900’s pursuing her Bachelors of Fine Art in Photography.
Moving from Texas to California, Guerra’s work challenges and teters on the topic of whether technology is good or bad. Focusing and reacting to negative outcomes from the rapid development of advanced technology in the Bay Area over recent years through abstraction, found objects, and portraiture. When her camera is not in her hands you can usually find her at one of her multiple jobs, on a road-trip or listening to live music.
Maro Han, Architecture
Maro Han was born and raised in South Korea. Before attending CCA, he served in both Korean and U.S. Army. However, Maro wished to connect with his creative childhood memories. He decided to study architecture while pursuing a concentration in digital craft. Maro is concerned with the housing crisis and architectures role in the future. He’s interested in how people can interact with architecture, and how it influences their daily lives. After graduation, he wishes to work for an architecture firm in Korea.
Joanne Huang, Architecture
Joanne Huang is an architecture designer who is currently attending California College of the Arts as a senior student. Originally from Taoyuan, Taiwan, Joanne started her interest in spatial design with Landscape Architecture where she focused on human behavior and activity within the environment of sustainable living. Her work involved cultural concern and encourage social engagement within architecture experience.
Jocelyn Khosla, Painting and Drawing
Jocelyn is a 22 year old Painting and Drawing major. Despite being in this major, she also enjoys sculpting in clay, cardboard and junk. Throughout her life, Jocelyn has found pleasure in making her own objects. Currently she makes her own sketchbooks based on medieval ones, clothes inspired by performance art and she is in the midst of making a series of demon masks out of throw away items. All of these projects are aimed at finding connections between the natural world and creating narrative structures within her artwork.
Tiffany Kim, Illustration
Tiffany Kim is Illustrator who is Junior student at California College of the Arts. Her work is about transforming the complex world in to a simple one. Tiffany, who has lived in major cities all her life, wants to express herself through simple images and drawings. Although she is very used to living in complex society, she finds it easy to create something simple yet has quality and meanings.
Nicole Lyu, Illustration
Nicole Lyu is a fourth year illustration major student in California College of Arts. Her work is based on her interest in literature and music, she wants to express her feelings and the image in her head when she was moved by a nice book, a poem or a song. She wants to capture and keep that magical moment. She was born and raised in China, which have a great influence on her style of drawing. But she don’t want to be stereotyped by that, there are so many beautiful art out there that she don’t want to miss.
Shanti Moreano Freire, Textiles
Shanti is a Junior Textiles major at California College of the Arts. Born in Ecuador but growing up in Minnesota was challenging as her surroundings often seemed to oppose each other and the need to assimilate to Western culture became crucial to fitting in. Her practice revolves around the tensions and experiences that she went through as a kid. She explores the hybrid identity that comes from being from neither here nor there as well as uses color to create her own definition of Latinx identity utilizing mediums such as embroidery, weaving, and dyeing.
Alice Niu, Graphic Design
Alice Niu is a graphic designer and visual artist who is currently a senior design student at California College of the Arts. Her work prioritizes visual communication design and sustainability, as well as the interaction between human and design. Because of her experience of growing up in several different cities, she gets interested in the impact of environment on individuals from family to culture, and curious about what constitutes a unique person. Besides design, she is a huge fan of fashion and intrigued by its culturally and politically component that drives diverse fashion trends.
Aosheng Ran, Interaction Design
Aosheng Ran is a San Francisco-based interaction designer who uses systems thinking and storytelling to empower individuals and communities. Originally from China, he has worked in multiple non-profit organizations where he used design to encourage public conversations and civic engagement. As an interaction designer, He is committed to large-scale challenges in the present world. He specializes in creating conceptual frameworks to locate opportunities in people’s experience and to facilitate behavior change. With strategic thinking, information visualization, and human-centered design, he is passionate about solving the world’s most persistent problems and creating long-term social and cultural impact.
Valeriya Velyka, Architecture
At the age of nine, Valeriya moved from Ukraine to Los Angeles with her mother. Outside of school, Valeriya took dance classes in various genres. In high school, Valeriya found her passion for Architecture after taking a drafting class. Ever since, she’s been determined to combine her passion for music, performance, and design. After receiving her B’Arch Valeriya plans to design performance spaces. She believes that people spend most of their time indoors surrounded by architecture, unaware of the impact it has on their daily lives. Valeriya’s goal in this field is to create something that will change the view of architecture as more than a series of buildings but as the emotions people feel in the spaces they occupy.
