you know you're becoming an adult when you need to go through multiple drafts for 1 email

Dear Professor, 

Thank you for your message. Apologies for the late reply. 

I too am excited to join the course this October! I was recently in Oxford for the IB Oxford Study Courses and visited St. Catherine's again with my family. Although no one was there, I loved the atmosphere given by the buildings, and I look forward to spending the next three years studying there. 

Unfortunately in the past few months I haven't been reading about art as much as I'd like to due to studying for exams. However, during my brief stay in London last week I visited the very popular David Hockney exhibition at the Tate and it reminded me why I've committed myself to this subject -- his Colorado canvases in particular with their really vibrant orange colors touched my heart and made me itch to do some painting myself.

I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly discuss some of my art historical interests. Lately I have been quite interested in contemporary painters. In a modern age where the boundaries of art have expanded so much I wonder why there is still such a visceral appeal in traditional media like oil painting. Is it simply, purely, because they are just so beautiful, and we as humans still can't relinquish the idea that aesthetics enhance art? Or perhaps because oil paintings encase the world in this strange surreal kind of alternate reality that is so frozen and eerie and vivid. (Or I'm just biased, as a painter myself.) Watching famous Chinese director Jia Zhangke's documentary about painter Liu Xiaodong also made me feel like this -- intrigued and amazed and so in love with art. Hopefully once the exams pass I'll be able to delve into it all again -- I'm soon going to be interviewing Australian abstract painter Louise Zhang for my magazine, which is a creative arts publication for the Chinese diaspora, and I think she's also in a moment of transition in terms of style, delving more into the macabre and using more jarring color schemes (at least from what I can see based on her Instagram!), so I'm excited to have a conversation with her about the appeal of painting and about her own practice in particular. 

The interview in our latest issue was with British video artist Lawrence Lek, who suggested this really interesting idea of 'Sinofuturism' reminiscent of Hito Steyerl, which confuses me a bit but is also absolutely fascinating. There are so many fresh ideas and perspectives out there, whether these are new ideas or simply historical ones I haven't systematically studied yet, and I can't wait to encounter them! 

See you in October,

Regards,

Jiaqi