School was like my second home, a place where I spent a lot of time with my family, where I played and where I grew up. My mother and father took me to their classrooms as soon as I could walk, and almost one-third of my family members are working in the education field, from kindergarten to college.

When I was five, riding on a zebra sculpture with my younger brother at our elementary school’s playground in Taiwan, a person held us from behind to take a picture. It was mother, who had taught at that school for 8 years.

 18 years later I came back to the same school as a teacher. Some of my teachers were still there, including my mother, but the zebra was gone. After being a teacher I realized how much patience and enthusiasm it takes to devote oneself to work as a educator for a whole lifetime. I also realized that any words or ideas you give to your students might become seeds to change their life, but I wasn’t sure that I was ready to continue on the same path as my parents. I wanted to give myself a chance to explore life and enrich myself to have enough to share.

I decided to follow the zebra pattern to try and find some answers. I came to New York and started to discover myself little by little through art-making processes, and found that creativity had become the essence of my life. I now use art as my second language to communicate with the world. I never had such a feeling of completeness and release as I do now when creating artwork.

Working at the New New Yorkers program in QMA with the adult immigrant populations, the smiles and passion of our  students keep reminding me of the very first moment I discovered art. Through their enthusiastic eyes, I saw the possibility of changing your life freely. In 2010 I built a spinning zebra sculpture at I-Park in the middle of their pond. Everything seems to be returning to the time when I was five. I am still tracing the path to find the direction of my life, and looking forward seeing a rainbow far away.