STUDENT HIGHLIGHT:
Meet the insightful Painter, Erik Zou
By: Grace Cen
Captured in the contrast between his delicate strokes and white space is Erik’s clear artistic vision and deliberate nature. Other pieces guide your eyes through a subtle trail of light, through Erik’s eyes as you pause in quiet admiration.
“Ultimately, I want other people to find what I find beautiful,” says Erik, his infectious laugh mellowing out into a diligent consideration as he begins to talk about art.
Erik Zou, Harvard ‘24, boasts an impressive artistic repertoire: full length murals commissioned for the Roxbury Latin Tea Room, having his work honored at Carnegie Hall, a Scholastic Gold Medal, and other countless art awards. He is one of our favorite contributors to The Wave - you can find his breathtaking watercolor and digital artwork in our Quaranzine and Family issues. In this interview, Erik earnestly conveys his artistic narrative, the essence of his passion for this field of work, his artistic philosophy, and how he balances art and college work.
Pictured above: Erik painting one of twelve full wall murals commissioned for the Roxbury Latin Tea Room
When and how did you come to stumble across art?
Drawing came into Erik’s life very naturally. “When I was in kindergarten I was already drawing. I used to draw a lot of fish, and sharks.”
“We had a fish tank at home and I would make my dad trace the fish in the fish tank for me.”
“Back then, I didn’t think about whether I was good at it or drawing with any sort of intention.” Erik’s mother tells him that she remembers her five year old son lying belly side down on the living room floor, drawing while he waited for his older brother to finish piano practice.
“I just liked doing [art] and found it fun.”
“In elementary school, I knew I was already good at drawing.” He explains that the adults in his life always complimented his art; it's not the validation, however, but instead a happy accident that kept him drawing and allowed him to develop the skills necessary for him to artistically express himself.
“I was really lucky to have been exposed to a lot of art classes; my parents had me tag along to my older brother’s art classes, but not for me to participate as another student-- more like just give this little kid a pencil and paper and occupy him,” he explains, laughing. “These teachers ended up seeing my potential though and telling my parents, and that’s when I started taking art more seriously.”
So as you grew older, it seems like your art has gotten a lot more deliberate. Can you describe your art style and why watercolor is your medium of choice?
“It took me a long time to establish my style, especially because there’s just so much content out there, and often so much temptation to adopt the styles of really successful artists.” He tells me that although watercolor is his medium of choice, he began working with it quite recently.
“I remember my first watercolor class in 10th grade, and how I felt when I worked with water for the first time. I just instantly fell in love. The way the colors blend together feels very natural, something that you just cannot emulate with anything else. I actually started with pencils and color pencils, and it’s just so different. Instead of having such control and constantly fine tuning, I sort of just do what feels right to me and it comes out a certain way.”
“Because you’re working with water, if you control it too much, the water is dead.”
Water color is really about figuring out “what parts [you] want to control, and where you want to let go and let the water do the work.”
“Even if you’re a natural color within the lines type of person, the medium guides me to break out of the mold, which is really cool.”
Pictured Above: “Morning Reading” by Erik Zou
Do you have an artistic philosophy of any kind or anything you try to portray?
“Ultimately I want other people to find what I find beautiful. Art, for me, has always been a way of capturing beauty: the way the sun hits the grass, or the creases in someone’s face. To be honest, I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life and (still maintain the somewhat naive belief that) this world is pretty amazing. I want to share that beauty. You will notice that there’s a lot of color in my work because I see the world in such color.”
What has the transition from pursuing the fine arts to doing art more for yourself been like, and how have you been keeping up with art at Harvard?
“For me, that transition was hard, because now that you’re not chasing after competitions anymore, it was really if you want to do it, you can and if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. I spent my gap year calibrating what art meant to me.” He describes his itch during that period to create even without being prompted to.
“Now, I just do art because it’s therapeutic. My art is a record of how I was feeling in that particular time span, and it’s just so satisfying to have that permanence.”
Pictured Above: “The Old Grove” by Erik Zou
“Last semester, because of the nature of the semester, I would block off 1-2 hrs a weekend...to take my watercolor sketchbook and chair and paint the campus. “If you see some kid lugging this chair and paint around, chances are it’s me,” he jokes.
“The privilege of art at Harvard is there are so many arts clubs, and so many different applications of art (to explore). I got the chance to be a part of the Harvard Design Collective, and it was so cool because I just didn’t think that I could apply my eye for aesthetics and creativity in that. I am also on the HPAIR Design Team, which is very different from the art I usually do, because there’s an objective that you don’t come up with. But it’s so nice to be in clubs that kind of keep you accountable for doing art. I’m a big fan of The Wave.”
Is there anything you would like to tell our audience or any other fellow student artists?
“I would just say to keep at it any way you can. There are a lot of ways your craft can help you develop yourself and your lens outside of art, and there are so many resources nowadays to help you keep learning. My art, for example, allows my observational skills to keep growing in a lot of ways.”
The bottom line is that it should always be enjoyable for you though.
“You shouldn’t feel guilty if you are not spending all your time doing art.”
As Erik’s journey illustrates, art does not have to be an all or nothing occupation. It is very much about taking the initiative to practice your craft in a way that feels doable for your schedule and fulfilling for your life.
Erik’s passion rings through his words. His poetic descriptions of how art has always been the force in his life that pushes him out of his comfort zone -- through the fluidity of watercolor or the constant exploration of new mediums and techniques to properly capture a moment’s fleeting beauty-- stirs the sleeping creative within me. Our conversation is full of creative understanding, as he perfectly conveys the satisfaction of finishing a work, of being able to re-live its construction, however easy or agonizing it may have been. I hope this interview awakens the same urge to create in you as speaking to Erik did for me, that you are encouraged to find small ways to interject art into your life as catalysts for self discovery.