The Art of Imperfection 

不完美的艺术

The splash of color that engulfed the wooden tables and bar stools first lured me into a local art studio next to my parents’ favorite supermarket. At seven years old, even I could read the big red sign: “Painting Lessons.” I peered through the studio’s glass windows and watched students smear turpentine across blank canvases, create initial sketches in vibrant base coats, and add finishing details with miniature brushes. I was hooked.

木桌和高脚凳上的那一抹绚丽的颜色成功地把我吸引到一家本地艺术工作室，它就在父母最喜欢的超市旁边。只有七岁的我也能读懂那块红色的大招牌： “绘画课” 。透过玻璃窗，我可以瞥见工作室里的同学们正在空白的画布上涂抹松节油，用艳丽的底色画出最初的草稿，再用微型画笔认真添上最后的细节。我被这一幕深深地吸引住了。

After starting the class myself, I fell in love with this meticulous but gratifying process. Eventually, painting and drawing consumed my spare time — I was committed to replicating the shapes and colors I observed in animals, people, landscapes, and objects on canvas. In those early years, I loved every moment and teachers praised my rapid progression. I didn’t know then that my aspirations to perfect my skills in this craft would lead me down many roads of frustration.

在我自己开始进入绘画课后，我深深爱上了这个要求精细而又令人欣慰满足的过程。绘画和素描占据了我所有的业余时间 —— 全身心投入地在画布上复刻着自己所观察到的动物、人物、风景和物体的形状及色彩。最初那几年，我热爱可以绘画的每一个瞬间，老师们也不时称赞我的进步神速。那时还不知道，想在绘画技艺上精益求精的愿望会让我走上数不胜数的挫折之路。

I remember the struggle vividly: as I stared blankly at that wooden model of a hand for what felt like forever, feelings of frustration, disappointment, and desperation blocked any efforts to continue manipulating the shadows, highlights, and shapes on my paper. I’d spent hours trying to successfully depict this hand model, but my hard work felt meaningless. That day, I left class unsatisfied with my abilities, and distraught by this challenge. Never before had art been a source of such distress, and at a young age I didn’t know how to grapple with these feelings.

那段彷徨挣扎的经历依然记忆犹新：当我茫然地盯着面前的木质手模时，感觉时间都永远静止在那里。陷在沮丧、失望甚至绝望的情绪里的我无法在画纸上处理阴影、高光和形状部分。几个小时试图成功复刻这只手膜的辛勤付出，似乎都是毫无意义。那天，走出教室的时候我对自己的艺术创造能力感到异常失望，也对这次课程的挑战感到沮丧至极。在艺术创作的过程中我从未感觉到如此苦恼，而在稚嫩的年岁里，我也不知道该如何面对这样的感受。 

After taking a break for a couple days, I found myself curious to try again. This time I accepted that what I was striving to convey on paper might not manifest itself on the first, second, or maybe even third attempt. After struggling with several different versions of this drawing over weeks, I finally felt satisfied with my depiction of the human hand. Not because it was the best demonstration of my artistic ability, but rather because tackling a skill that challenged me so thoroughly gave me pride unparalleled by my other works. It became one of my favorite pieces.

休息几天后，我发现自己在好奇心驱使下很想再次发起尝试。只是这一次接受了一个事实： 努力尝试呈现在纸面上的艺术表达可能不会在第一次、第二次甚至是第三次的尝试创作中表达出来。 经过几周的努力，这幅画也经历了几个不同的创作版本，最终我对自己关于人体手部创作的描述越来越满意了。这并不仅仅是因为它是我艺术表达力的体现，也因为成功挑战了这项能力后，让我感觉到与创作其他作品无法比拟的自豪感，历尽千辛的成功后，也让它也成为了我最喜欢的作品之一。

The hurdle I needed to overcome was not the task itself; it was being able to continue working at something that didn’t come easily. My struggle to illustrate a hand was not a test of my abilities, but rather of my patience and perseverance.

需要克服的困难并不是绘画任务的本身，而是能否持续做一件充满挑战且得之不易的事情。我努力尝试画出人体手部的过程不仅对个人能力的考验，更是对一个人耐心和毅力的考验。

This past summer, I audited a data science class at UC Berkeley while I interned for a graduate researcher. The only high schooler surrounded by college engineers, I was stretched beyond anything I’d delved into in high school: math concepts I had never seen before, a new computer programming language. When I first started tackling the problem sets, I often found myself staring at the page for hours. I started to get frustrated that I was not grasping new concepts fast enough to efficiently work through the course.

去年暑假，我在加州大学伯克利分校为一名研究生研究员做实习生的时候，选择旁听了一门数据科学的课程。作为唯一一名被大学工程师们包围的高中生，我所经历的学习任务超出在高中阶段所钻研的任何领域：从未见过的数学概念以及全新的计算机编程语言。刚开始接触问题集时，我经常发现自己盯着一页书一看就是几个小时。因为掌握概念的速度不够快，无法高效的完成课程，沮丧的情绪会又再一次降临。

But I reminded myself it was not the first time I found myself challenged by something I was passionate about. As with many art pieces in the past, I continued working on the labs with the understanding that they were likely not going to successfully run after my first few — or many — attempts. After completing a few more labs, problems started to become more familiar and easier to handle, and eventually, I started applying the skills I developed in the course to create real data sets that tracked boat emissions in the Bay Area.

但是我会提醒自己，这并不是第一次面临来自热爱事情的挑战。就像之前创作过许多的艺术作品过程一样，我会继续留在实验室里工作，在经历过第一次或多次尝试后，实验可能也无法得以成功运行。但随着实验次数的增多，过程中的问题会变得越来越清晰和容易处理，最终，我能应用在课程中习得的技能来创建真实的数据库，用来追踪湾区的船只尾气的排放情况。

This work challenged me more than any math or science class had ever challenged me in my academic career, and as a result the work was that much more rewarding. As frustrating as these challenges are, I am inspired to leap towards them, because they have instilled in me the confidence to view challenges as opportunities for growth.

学习生涯中，这份实验室的工作给我带来的挑战比任何数学或科学课都要大，同时这项工作也让我收获颇丰。挑战虽然会令人沮丧，但它们却一直激励着我勇往直前，也是它们给了我把挑战视为成长和机遇的信心。

专家反馈：

In this essay, Stella dives into her journey in the art world and the challenges that came with it. She highlights the joy she found in painting at a young age and the ways this relationship evolved as she grew. Stella shows us how accepting imperfections and being patient allowed her to embrace her craft. She applies these lessons to different settings with new challenges. Her ability to recognize obstacles as opportunities for growth will serve her well at Hopkins, where she will be surrounded by new peers and opportunities and continue to learn in dynamic ways.

在这篇文章中，斯特拉深入探讨了她在艺术世界中的旅程以及随之而来的挑战。她强调了自己年幼时在绘画中找到的快乐，以及这种关系随着她的成长而演变升华的方式。斯特拉向我们展示了如何接受不完美和保持耐心，使她能够拥抱自己的技艺。她将这些经验应用到不同的环境中，迎接新的挑战。在约翰霍普金斯大学，她将被新的同龄人和机遇所包围，并将以充满活力的方式继续学习。

本文内容来自 Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions

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图片来自约翰霍普金斯大学官网