Feature Stories 2024: Connor Chan '24

About Connor Chan:

Growing up, Connor was interested in many different forms of art, but drawing was his comfort, what he knew best, and what he wanted to push further, so he chose it as his major. He always wanted to explore and perfect the human form, specifically the face, which remains a major focus in his work. Currently, Connor is developing a body of work for the 2024 Senior Exhibition, in which he explores friendship through works that combine observation, memory, and imagination, and create meanings with the figures he loves dearly.

Statement:

My current work is about my striving to show an honest exploration of human connection with depth and complexity. It’s about the "whole" friendship, shown through representational images of the body in moments spent together. Through my process, I hope to show signs of imperfections, implications of discomfort, struggle, and work that are inherent to the formation and sustenance of being and being with a loved one. Holding yourself accountable, being reasonable and true to your feelings, possessing the ability to forgive yourself and others, and experiencing feelings you don’t necessarily want can all happen when you are truly allowing someone into your life. Of course, there are wonderful times filled with joy and understanding. But for me and others, those can exist in and around times of inner turmoil and feelings of upset, that are sometimes known by the other person and sometimes not. What is shown, what you let people in on, can be very important, which is true in pieces of art as well. I want to create work that shows an honest representation of my experiences, with the joy and the work, the signs of struggle but the resilience of the good, in hopes that it will manifest and reign true in this life. It is for the friends I’ve kept and lost, because I would be nowhere without them all.

"I want to create work that shows an honest representation of my experiences, with the joy and the work, the signs of struggle but the resilience of the good, in hopes that it will manifest and reign true in this life. It is for the friends I’ve kept and lost, because I would be nowhere without them all."