Letter from the Editors
words by Aliza Susatijo and Sana Friedman, art by Sarah Jun
Dear Beloved Readers,
As creators, students, and even on an individual level, our lives are often dictated by organization. Meticulously planning out our daily schedule and adhering our work to follow rigorous requirements. For this issue of Volume IV, we wanted to give our staff a source of inspiration without tying them to any one specific theme. To not create based on what is expected, but instead feel free to draw from a variety of influences, or even none at all. What is put onto paper when you are moved only by yourself? At your very core, who are you? These are the questions our staff confronts in our fifth issue: WILDCARD.
Our issue begins with Sarah Jun’s cover art, inspired by a school of fish. This reflects the distinct individuality that each piece holds, swimming in its own direction. Yet each piece holds similar through lines, a reflection of the same foundations that push us all to create, that allow us to pair pieces together.
Scarlet M.’s piece, “Dirge For A Reef Of Bleached Coral,” writes a eulogy to the oceans, singing a farewell to the temporal beauty that once colored its waters. This aligns with Mariam Seshan’s rendition of old photographs, drawing on the different phases of life that are captured in memory from beginning to end. Anh Tim Phan similarly reflects on memory, bridging the ocean between two homes in his piece “Breathe?” Pauline Tsui rotates the stones of time in her hands in “Indecipherable Runes,” ruminating on the small pieces of her life that inevitably shape her larger story.
Megana Kumar pulls her readers into a story of simultaneous discovery and reminiscence, reflecting the deep bonds of family in “A Map with No Labels.” Inspired by an endless spiral, Riese Carlson creates an image that curls into the depths of our mind and leaves us pondering eternity. In “Junk Drawer,” Liah Chung dregs up what was once trash and turns it into capsules of past lives held in her hands. Ananya Sairaman plays on the concept of time machines, visualizing how all the organisms of the world eventually return to the Earth and become material to create more life.
Hannah Shen relies on the reemergence of the sun in “Totality” to create a piece that plays with form and beckons readers to cast out their uncertainty. Katherine Shi interweaves this poetry with her art to bring to life an emerging glow of community during a time of obscurity and darkness. In her piece “Apple Wax,” Agnes Cho delves into the confusion behind feeling emotions without being able to place a memory behind it. Jason Chen rounds this out by playing on the absurdity of magic, bringing to life a foolish joy in his pencil drawing.
This issue gives our staff a chance to build and bend the foundations of their inspiration into whatever form they hope for their piece to take. Just as there are 52 cards in a deck and limitless combinations of each, the pieces created by our staff are also boundless in the way they can be viewed, interpreted, and understood.
With all our love,
Aliza and Sana <3
