Senior Alex Cai ’22 has been making art at Germantown Academy since Lower School. He has created many designs for GA such as the cover art for the Make-A-Wish basketball tournament, flyers for school events, the design for GA-PC Day shirts, and even his class stone all this year. Alex has certainly used his art to make the GA community a better place.
As already mentioned, Cai has been making art at GA for a long time. He has“fond memories of past classes, from the Donald Duck bust with Ms. Killo, to the copper hammerhead shark with Mr. Huber, to the papercut blue jay with Ms. Burkus.” From the passion grown over his years taking art, he has hopes for GA to put even more energy into arts programming at GA. He wishes that the Arts Center will be rebuilt and that GA will begin to give more attention to art of all forms. One of the things that he also suggests for change is the ability to take more than one art class, as he was affected by this freshman year. He said, “I didn’t like not being able to take a full art class in ninth grade… It really shouldn’t be an issue for someone to want to take two art classes.”
Cai has been hard at work on many projects. The major project he is currently working on is “a pair of geometric wings made entirely from black and white foam core.” He has also been spending time on a “mini project” making postcards after his visit with the honors art program to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Perhaps Cai’s most important project, however, is his paper crane dress. It is his senior passion project, and he says that nothing will stop him from completing it. When asked about the project, Cai said, “If I want one piece to define me after I leave GA, I would want it to be the crane dress. It’s a vessel for wish, determination, and truth.” After the large mark Cai has already made on GA, this project will definitely leave an incredible and very inspiring footprint. As far as art for Cai in the future, he does not plan to major in art in college in order to pursue other passions such as science. He might be able to minor in art, but even if he cannot, he says he will “keep making art on [his] own no matter what.” Future plans include possibly opening commissions along with encouraging and inspiring others to be imaginative with the power of art. As he puts it himself, “I want to encourage people to get lost in creativity and feel like a kid again.”
No matter what the future holds for Alex, he will definitely continue to bring fantasy and imagination back to a busy and hectic world with his art.