Amber Li — Ratrock Magazine

Feature by Vivian Wang

Photos by Chantel Hope

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Amber Li is currently a sophomore at Columbia University, majoring in computer science and minoring in statistics. She draws inspiration from her studies in the STEM field and her passion for ballet to create across various mediums, from traditional oil painting to technological art, and even fashion design. Much like herself, her work carries a whimsical, graceful, and innovative spirit.

October 4, 2024. 10:00 AM EST. 60°F. A sunny fall Friday morning.

I perched on a bench outside Dodge, anxiously waiting for Amber. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in the wrong place—why did we decide to meet outside the gym? My instincts proved right, as that morning I discovered that both Dodge Physical Fitness Center and Dodge Hall exist. I scrambled to get to our actual rendezvous, feeling silly for my mix-up and even more anxious about making a bad first impression. Luckily, when I found her outside Dodge Hall, she greeted me with a warm, bubbly smile. Wearing a cozy sweater, flowing white skirt, and brown leather boots, Amber looked like she stepped out right out of a storybook. The breeze danced through her wispy bangs, framing her blushed face, and I felt a strange familiarity with her. Both being second-generation immigrants with Chinese parents, we bonded over our shared experiences: the push towards STEM, the weight of the “American dream,” piano, and then quitting piano…

Amber was drawn to the allure of New York City and its seemingly boundless opportunities, yearning to break free from the comfortable bubble of her hometown and the—unfortunately much too often—linear path of STEM careers.

“The diversity of New York, and what it claims [to be], and the art space has always attracted me. I wanted to immerse myself in a place where I feel like I could truly be myself. Although I love home, I feel like I conformed rather than was myself.”

Amber has been immersed in the field of arts her entire life—visual and performing. At Columbia, she’s the assistant artistic director for Columbia Ballet Collaborative, where she manages the behind-the-scenes operations while performing. Her love for dance is evident in many of her works.

“One thing that really drives my artistic investigation is my background in ballet. As a dancer, you really have to see the body as a vessel of movement, expressing emotion. I’m so entranced by the human body. It’s capable of so many things, and I’ve realized it’s a trend in my art, not purposefully. I have a lot of pieces that investigate bodily movement, and if not the body, movement and dynamism.”

The painting that drew me to her, Silhouette (2022), depicts a minimalistic outline of a figure folded over; the detail in the painting is found in the hands and feet, which grasp the body in a sensual, intimate manner. It's both one of her and my favorites. When I asked her about the story behind this painting, she opened up to me about her struggle with body image as a result of dance. Taking a sip from her Joe’s matcha, she explained, “I can’t lie to you, I think dancing has instilled in me this almost too keen awareness of my body. I struggled a lot with body image, almost all my life, until college; I feel like it's so much freer here”. Silhouette (2022) alludes to this keen awareness of the body, capturing both a delicate fluidity and tender stillness. Her other works, such as Maneuver (2021), demonstrate a similar investigation of the body, its function, capabilities, and limits.

Of the various mediums she explores, Amber tells me that she favors oil painting for its familiarity. She explains, “it's so flexible, and you're able to do so much. It’s very organic and closely aligns with humanism. You're able to portray real life in the way that we see it, more accurately than other mediums.” Looking through her portfolio, I found that most of her works combine traditional elements with a whimsicality. In one of her most recent oil paintings, Cupid and Psyche (2024), she took inspiration from one of her favorite artists, Colleen Barry. Amber said that she wanted to break free from a realist point of view by merging vibrant, funky colors into her depiction of an Italian sculpture she came across at the MET. Scrolling through her portfolio, I noticed that she has consistent fairytale references and themes in her work, and when I asked her about them, she seemed taken aback. Her art is intimate and oozes from her memory unconsciously. She told me, “I’m just a girl at heart…I think before even realizing that I tended towards fairy tales, maybe more than the next person, I had been already creating so many artworks about that. I think there’s a portrait of my sister in a Cinderella dress, and I didn’t realize that was something I was doing.” Her subconscious integration of fantasy is a comforting reminder that youth, whim, and wonder remain with us as we navigate the complexities of aging.

With a software engineer for a father and an accountant for a mother, Amber was gently herded toward studying mathematics growing up. “In high school, or actually for all my life, I found that finding time for art was the single biggest challenge I faced, because the interdisciplinary sector between math and art isn't that big. There's only so much you can do, and I found myself just living two lives,” she said. Surprisingly, computer science became the in-between. Similar to her artistic process, Amber loved how computer science requires intensive research, technicality, and creativity.

“It really combines the creative portion I love about art and the super technical, problem-solving. I love to think about things from a quantitative approach, while also being creative. So for me, that was my balance. I was able to combine both my passions into one”

Yin and Yang

Ultraviolet, 2022

In some of her recent works, Amber explores a new medium by meshing technology with art, drawing inspiration from algorithms, while also experimenting with generative arts, like “DALL-E.”

“Everything that I have been doing has been technology adjacent, but these two pieces, one of them was called Ultraviolet and the other is called Yin and Yang, are literally, computer generated art. And I think the inspiration behind that was: How can I use computer processes to still emulate the same emotions you get through oil painting? They're completely different mediums, but the creative process that I took was very similar.

Her digital pieces introduce the intricate nuances of computer science while retaining aspects of movement reminiscent of her oil paintings. Her works serve as a synergy between the analytical and the expressive, reflecting her deep understanding of both realms. Contrary to popular opinion, Amber views the emergence of AI-generated art as a new source of inspiration and possibility, rather than a creative hindrance to humanity. Initially apprehensive, she discovered once she began experimenting with it that it was just another medium.

“It truly is just another tool. If you know how to use it, it can inspire so much more about your own creative process. I used it to augment the boundaries of one of my pieces. It provokes you to think about your art in a different way that you otherwise couldn't. In completing those two projects, I realized that it’s coming from you, and you're recursively editing, revising, shaping, and completely reimagining your own code. In that sense, it really is just like an artistic process.”

Amber recently began venturing into fashion design, actualizing her digital creations to life in corporeal form. Made of tape, wire, and ink, Murmuration Garment Design (2022) was heavily inspired by her obsession with Iris van Herpen, who she discovered similarly tries to marry her background in ballet with math and engineering.

As a STEM student at Columbia, Amber talked in depth about her challenges juggling her intended career path with her involvement in the arts. She reflected on her experiences, saying, “It's tough to balance timelines. You only have so many hours in the day, so perhaps college is the biggest creative block for me.” Having a similar dilemma myself, I asked her how she does it, and so successfully too. Her answer: “Art isn’t going to escape you.” She emphasized that creativity is an intrinsic part of who we are, and it doesn’t simply vanish when life gets hectic. Being an artist, she reminded me, doesn’t necessitate constant creation; instead, it's also important to savor the moments when you can engage and appreciate the creative expression of others. Her words of advice: take advantage of Columbia Arts Initiative.

When I asked about her future career plans, she told me she hopes to find herself in data science, AI, quantitative analysis, or even architecture. For now, art simply serves as a personal indulgence, but she toys with the idea of pursuing a masters in art, should life lead her that way.

More of Amber’s work can be found on her website.

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