"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."- Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.
While some might interpret the dean of sci-fi's words through Lazarus here as potentially xenophobic towards insectoid extraterrestrial species, such as the bugs that appear in his great work, Starship Troopers, I assure you that wasn't his intent, as the insects mentioned here refer to eusocial insect societies where individuals have highly specialized roles. The quote suggests the seemingly boundless human potential and an argument against the idea that people should limit themselves to a single narrow path in life, a timeless piece of advice from the exceptionally long-lived protagonist of Time Enough for Love, Lazarus Long.
The idea of embracing the multipotentiality of human capability rather than the fixed roles is akin to the Renaissance man-type model of human development adopted by people across cultures throughout history, something our guest of honor here today, Scott Penghua Liu, agrees wholeheartedly with and is trying to pursue to the best of his current capabilities.
Scott, Penghua Liu, 2023
Scott has been with us since 2019 and has shared an extensive catalog of outstanding artworks on the platform, inspiring young, aspiring artists across the globe. He's currently studying at The School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University in the class of 2026, exploring a broad range of artistic mediums and his own interests and ideas.
We've been with you ever since you decided to seriously consider pursuing art for your higher education and career, so we know your earlier artistic concept quite well. Mind sharing some of the more prevalent ideas with some of our new readers?
Yeah, of course. It was hard to put into words before I properly thought through my portfolio; it's much easier looking back now. I would say my earlier works revolved around my childhood experiences and the stories I read, like fairytales and folklore. As you know, I was diagnosed to be on the spectrum and have a mild case of synesthesia, so all those weird sensations from my childhood, which I, of course, didn't understand at all, kind of melded with the otherworldly imageries from those stories, and it really felt kind of magical think backing. And when I shared my ideas through my art, many people thought they were amazing, almost magical. Since then, I've been trying to recapture some of these fleeing moments in childhood, to share certain feelings, certain emotions. I didn't really care to share grand ideas or intricate concepts. To me, art is to make people feel, and any feeling I can evoke is good enough.
Istota Nocny, stop motion film, Scott Liu, 2021
You've done plenty of work in a diverse range of mediums even before you enrolled in college; could you elaborate on them? Why do you do that, since a lot of people try to specialize in an area? What do you like about each medium, and what are you exploring now?
So, lemme recap. For my earlier works, I've done stop motion, all sorts of sculptures, painting, drawing, stage adaptation, mix-media pieces, and... OK, you can say that making art is how I communicate with the world and how the world communicates to me. Let's clear that up. I think art is how we understand how we interact with the world. Like eating, that's the sense of taste. Listening to music that's the sense of hearing. Smelling something, like incense or paint, that's the olfactory sense. Visual art is obviously what we see. They are the fundamental ways we perceive the world around us, and our perceptions influence what we think, so regardless of the form, art can influence how we think and, in turn, how we feel. And that's why I think mastering multiple mediums of artmaking is important; I'm still trying to figure out my path in visual arts, but there are many other fields I'd like to explore. Currently, I'm mainly doing painting for school to get some concepts cleared up from critiques because it's the most straightforward medium for visual arts. But I do love sculpture for its physicality and presence and new material usage that can include other senses. Film obviously because it includes visual and audio elements. I'm trying to include metalworking, woodworking, and glassworking into my skillset now as well, but they are a lot harder to work with, so I'm still working on that.
Wooden Puppet, Scott Liu, 2023
What are some other interests, don't have to be related to art, that you are currently pursuing?
I'm doing some fencing and HEMA right now. You already know, I always loved archery because it uses all your senses to make a good shot. The fact you can kind of consider all these forms of martial arts, they already have the word art in them, too, is really interesting. These activities all require fine motor control, just like holding a brush or a chisel. They require mental discipline, too, like overcoming a bottleneck in training and overcoming an artist's block. Also, a good showing of fencing is like physical chess and is really an aesthetical form of combat. It's graceful, requiring you to see, hear, and move all perfectly, and I think that's so interesting and it's fun.
Scott all geared up, 2023
Care to share some of your current works?
Man, I'm still experimenting with a lot of mediums, so many of those aren't up to standard in my mind. But some that are complete and I'm relatively happy with are mostly paintings. For example, this one is my own take on a story based on Inuit culture and feminism, doesn't have a name yet. I'm mostly experimenting with triptych and visual storytelling. It's definitely not among my best paintings but I did have fun with the story. It's a three-panel painting about the story of two Inuit women escaping their abusive husbands, with one forced to give birth in a whale carcass because of the perpetually harsh, even lethal environment surrounding them. I think their situation is kind of a poetic reflection of the human condition, to live vs to survive. To survive in an abusive albeit safer environment, or to potentially die in a rotting carcass in the blizzard but following one's determined path.
Untitled Triptych, painting, Scott Liu, 2023
Any advice for future young artists who want to follow a similar path to yours, studying fine art in university, that is?
Yeah, don't. I'm kidding, by the way. I know art is the most mocked major in higher education, and some stats do support that claim, but I think as long as you accumulate enough knowledge and skill, you don't have to be the stereotypical struggling artist. Don't constrain yourself in one area of expertise in terms of artmaking and conceptual approach; challenge yourself. You want to follow this path because you thrive in creativity, but that ultimate satisfaction doesn't have to come just from making the specific art from your specific domain of expertise. You could be a stagewright from your interest in architecture, you could be a machinist from your metalworking experiences, a politician from a painter, lol. I'm kidding about that last one. Yeah, it's still too early to say; Picasso said he couldn't paint like a child for almost all his life despite being about to paint photorealistic things as a teen. So university is still where you are finding your bearing, don't sweat, have fun with all the things you get to play with, and search for that meaning. Remember, Lazarus also said, "Money cannot buy happiness; it cannot even buy the absence of misery. All that it can do is to buy something that may cause a moment's joy or a lifetime's misery."