Carina Huang, What the Water Keeps, acrylic, $135

Carina Huang

Santa Catalina School, Senior

I am interested in how memory shifts under the influence of emotion. Moments that once felt clear often become altered when revisited, reshaped by feeling rather than preserved as truth. Through my work, I explore the instability of remembering and the quiet tension between what we try to recall and what actually remains.

I work with acrylic paint, using layered color and circular distortions to echo the way emotions ripple through memory. The reflective surface and overlapping waves are intentional, allowing light and color to fragment rather than settle. Neon hues emerge and dissolve across the surface, suggesting fragments of urban light that resist clarity. Acrylic allows me to balance control and fluidity, mirroring how memories feel both constructed and uncontrollable.

In this piece, reflections of neon light appear on a disturbed water surface, interrupted by ripples that continuously break the image apart. The absence of fixed forms emphasizes how emotion interferes with recall—each ripple subtly alters what can be seen or understood. Rather than presenting a single moment, the work captures the experience of trying to remember while emotion reshapes perception. I hope viewers recognize this familiar uncertainty and reflect on how their own memories are quietly influenced by feeling.

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