Junchen Huang in the McCray Art Building on campus

Silver City, NM - Junchen Huang is ending his journey as an undergraduate student at Western New Mexico University. He will be earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree on Friday. Next week he prepares to begin a new academic career at Pratt Institute in New York City. While he plans to study in the most artistic city in the country, his experience as a Mustang has already taken him around the world.

Huang was born in China. As a child he was interested in art but felt that he couldn't express his creativity as freely as he did once he moved to the United States nine years ago.

"Chinese educational systems are not always prone to art," explained Huang. "It can be a side thing, a hobby. In the United States you have freedom and no restrictions as well as the audience and acceptance of doing art is greater."

Huang's main focus is painting and drawing; however, throughout the last year he has created artwork that is displayed through live projections. That experience led him to be chosen as a participant with the Shadow People Project this past April. The Shadow People Project is an organization inspired by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in in 1945.

Huang traveled to Japan during the first week of April with a small group of artists from around the country. He heard from atomic bomb survivors and subsequently partnered with Japanese artists to tell the stories of those survivors.

"Sharing ideas is really exciting but to make it work is a challenge because we are so different," explained Huang about his experience. "At the same time, we all speak the same language. With art there are no barriers."

The Shadow People Project participants toured museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but it was their experiences connecting with survivors of the 1945 event that helped shape their artwork and the displays presented in Japan during the trip.

"I did a live projection telling a story," said Huang. "It was sad, very sad but inspiring what they were able to tell us and share with us in a way that I never experienced in my life."

Huang credits the passion and focus of the faculty in the Expressive Arts Department at WNMU for allowing him the opportunity to experience such a unique event.

"This art program allowed me to have freedom and to be flexible with no restrictions," explained Huang. "Here we have to be more self-disciplined and more self-motivating. Now I have the experience to push myself."

This coming fall, Huang will be pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at Pratt University in Brooklyn. The school boasts 4600 students and is considered a cultural hub with access to the world's top talent in design and art.

Western New Mexico University has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive, regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and serves a student body diverse in age, culture, language and ethnic background.