Today we’d like to introduce you to Brenda Chen.
Hi Brenda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been an artist ever since I can remember. Some of my fondest childhood memories were drawing with my dad on the weekends and decorating our kitchen with all of our artwork. These little sessions made me fall in love with art and cultivated a curiosity to explore other mediums. This led me to experiment with sculpting, etching, screen-printing, sewing — anything and everything creative.
When I was in high school I was fortunate to be able to receive a scholarship to participate in the Ryman Arts Program, attend the California State Summer School for the Arts, and intern at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. Through the amazing people I met through these programs, I was inspired to pursue creative career opportunities and study animation at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
During my freshman year at USC, I accidentally wandered into the Mixed Reality Lab where I got to try virtual reality for the first time. I was completely blown away and immediately fell in love with the medium. As an artist, it has always been my goal to create magic and make people feel as if they’ve been transported to another universe. With VR and other forms of immersive media, that was now possible. So, I spent the rest of my college career grinding away in the mixed reality lab where I combined my love for traditional art and emerging tech to create VR and AR games, projection mapping installations, mixed reality experiences, etc.
Through these experiences that I built, I gained the opportunity to travel around the world to present at conventions and exhibitions where I met a community of like-minded people, receive a grant from Oculus to ship my own VR game, and landed multiple internships and jobs building VR/AR games, virtual concerts, music visuals, and installations.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest challenge as an artist is staying focused. I get excited by new mediums and emerging tech and so am always eager to start a new project. It’s easy for me to get distracted with a new idea which leads to lots of projects started, but very few finished.
I used to beat myself up about this when I was younger, but now I don’t mind so much. Part of the fun of art is exploring and experimenting with different mediums. Not everything you create has to be a masterpiece or even completed. Now I just archive all of my half-baked ideas and projects into a library so that if I ever run into a creative block I can use them as a jumping-off point or for inspiration.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As an artist, I strive to craft experiences that are vibrant, thought-provoking, and fun. I love to mix and match different mediums and often find myself working at the intersection of art, tech, music, and gaming.
For example, my love for music led me to direct Justin Bieber’s VMA-nominated virtual concert as well as shows for John Legend and Jauz at Wave. I’ve also created visuals for artists like The Weeknd and Dillon Francis and performed visuals as a VJ at the Hard Summer Music Festival.
I also love building virtual worlds. In my professional life, I work with brands like Nike, Verizon, and Roblox to design virtual experiences and in my personal life, I’m building my own digital tarot deck centered around a bootylicious alien named Blobby and a library of virtual avatars.
Outside of concert visuals and virtual experiences I love physical installations and exploring them as a form of art therapy. I built “Opal,” an immersive light bath where players can lay down and interact with rainbow light animations that are projected onto their bodies as a way to promote stress relief and relaxation. I learned a ton from this project and would love to continue building more experiences like this.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
If you’d like to collaborate, chat, or check out more of my art feel free to follow me on Instagram and Twitter @elevatedtrash or peep my website.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brendachenart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatedtrash/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/elevatedtrash
- Other: https://vimeo.com/brendachen
Image Credits
Brenda Chen, Seena Akita, Kelly Chen
