Lisa (Jingxuan) Shao

Hi, I'm Lisa (Jingxuan) Shao. I am an international student from China and a first-year illustration student at OCAD. I like drawing, photographing watching animation, playing piano, dancing, and cooking. Since primary school, Miyazaki Hayao has been my favourite animation director. Because of him, I started my journey in opaque watercolour, it became my main medium. The significance of drawing to me is to heal myself and my audience. I hope my work can make people forget their pain and can resonate with them, telling them they are not alone and returning them to tranquility. I like to tell a wordless story through an image, wishing the viewers to dissect it.

Self-Redemption

Watercolour, opaque watercolour, pencil crayon, highlighter, 10" x 7" (*3), 2024

The illustration "Self Redemption" is in a series made with three images that present different stages of my life. It depicts self-redemption of catching the chance to change personal environment and habits, etc, and finally, find what I want. It also indicates the anxiety and resolutions towards happiness and success through my journey in Canada, such as meeting different people, coping with language learning, life difficulties, etc.

Heart to Heart

Watercolour, pencil crayon, opaque watercolour, highlighter, 5" x7 ",2024

The illustration "Heart to Heart" expresses the love I feel in Canada. The big “me” hugging the earth in my arms indicates I love Canada as I love my old home and making connections to the people in Canada from all over the world as Canada advocates multiculturalism. The inspiration for this picture is from my imagination of my mother’s big hug to me, and the security of staying in my mother's hug can be the same applied to the security I felt in Canada, in this big family.

Lucky Girl's Magic

Opaque watercolour, soft pastels, pencil crayon, highlighter, 11" x 14", 2024

The illustration "Lucky Girl's Magic" in which a girl is under her quilt at midnight, creating magic secretly as the flower grows out of the glass tank and expands the branches outwardly. The big and little creatures are attracted by this shining and beautiful magic, and being close to her, symbolizes the potential friends in my life in Canada. This fascinating magic represents the bright spot that the girl is making in the dark night, which symbolizes the toughest time or the difficulties in her life. The books behind her indicate her hard-working that after reading and searching, she finally creates the magic successfully. And the treasure box also represents that life in Canada is full of adventures and surprises. All of these indicate my life as a fourteen-year-old international student who first came to Canada and started building my life here, getting along with others, and step by step becoming an optimistic person.

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