Today we’d like to introduce you to Mia Cheng
Hi Mia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Art and design has always had significant value in my life, and I truly believe that art greatly influences how people live and experience life no matter how big or small. The seedling of my passion for art started when my parents complimented the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards I drew for them. Yes, they may have just been doing their duty as encouraging parents, but my little heart took it with rigour!
At the tender age of 1, I was put into children’s art classes with my best friend. Over the years, I learnt and explored more traditional techniques like oil and still life painting. However, as much as I liked drawing and painting, it started to feel monotonous after going to class every single Saturday, especially when my friend got busy with other things and couldn’t come with me anymore.
This was also around the time I stumbled into the world of cartoons, and it was a eureka moment for me. This might sound a little silly, but I think watching cartoons was very formative in my journey as an artist. It taught me to branch out of just realistic depictions of the way things were, and encouraged me to put my own spin and personality into my art! It is truly an amazing thing when you realise you have free will to create whatever you want, however you want.
As middle school came about, I also discovered a little something called “digital art,” which opened a whole new universe to my little 12 year old brain. With many inspirational digital artists online, I started by doodling on FireAlpaca (a free digital painting software) whenever I could. Soon after, I adopted an iPad with an iPad pencil, finally buying the drawing app I have wanted for so long!
When I got to high school and started learning how to have autonomy over myself and my art, I started experimenting more with mixed media as well. At the same time, I was using my digital drawing skills to create illustrations for school magazines and posters.
As I started gaining a little more confidence in my art, I mustered up the courage to open an art account on Instagram. I tried to hide it out of hesitation at first, but then of course, the inevitable happened and my friends found out. However, contrary to what I thought, I realised that having people know about my art really wasn’t that bad at all. In fact, as time went on, I found being able to share my art and my stories with people is what made me come to love art even more! I think my art journey is based on a love of making and creating things, and thinking it would be nice to share it with the lovely people of this world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
“Nothing grows overnight, so take your time and become who you want to be.” This phrase is from a short animation I did back in highschool, when I realised that I could finally embrace myself just the way I am.
Growing up with a brother just two years older than me, everything was a competition. Our sibling rivalry mirrored Tom & Jerry, our favourite TV show. While my brother was swift and witty like Jerry (the mouse), I always seemed to lag behind despite my efforts like Tom (the cat). Whereas my brother received praises for his cleverness, I instead received a surprising diagnosis.
In first grade, my teachers directed my parents to Dr. Mina, a clinical child psychologist. She observed that although I was a healthy child, I experienced an information processing delay (imagine: I was using dial-up while all my peers were running on 5G brains!).
While my teachers and parents were incredibly supportive, I couldn’t help but feel like an outcast. I can still picture that year when our math teacher asked the class to line up according to age, everyone enthusiastically set to work – but her words sounded like gibberish to me. In a world of bright mice who were good at math and science like my brother and my peers, I was the clueless cat trailing behind.
When I was 14, my dorm mentor Beryl introduced me to a Chinese comic, “The Adventures of Bear & Chick”, which, unlike the antagonistic Tom & Jerry, depicted a beautiful friendship despite differences. It not only inspired me to embrace my unique differences and forgo comparing myself to others, but also encouraged me to experiment more with my art. Beryl discovered my secret scribbles and encouraged me to share my artwork with others despite my reservations. To my surprise, my peers loved my art – finding it inspiring! For my final project, I decided to transform myself into a cartoon character inspired by my experiences – one who teaches others to embrace their idiosyncrasies.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I can be called an illustrator, designer, artist, animator, sewist, crocheter, fiber artist, tree lover and so on, but honestly, I’m still finding my way in my art. I think above everything, I am a creative. I believe that being a creative doesn’t just involve making art, but also branches out to the way we live life and perceive the world. Because of this, the art I make covers a variety of work, drawing on all my experiences, and also the skills I have honed through my passions and hobbies.
My art usually stems from myself and my emotions, so it tends to be quite personal. I enjoy making art that engages viewers and their emotions as well. The type of art is usually based on what message I want to portray, especially recently as I explore more mixed media art forms, marrying my hobbies in crafts and my illustration to make artwork unique to me and my interests!
I have enjoyed arts and crafts for as long as I can remember: sewing, crocheting, knitting, clay, leather working and more! Further learning about the relationship between women and crafts in history also strengthened my resolve in my mixed media artworks. The arts and crafts movement was something I wasn’t aware about before college, and seeing how women have used these so-called “less useful” and “purely ornamental” crafts to reclaim their power and identity has expanded my interest in textiles and tactile art as well.
I started off with oil painting as a child, which I feel is as traditional as you can get, but I really enjoyed making weird little things in my free time that I didn’t even know what to call. For example, one time I imagined a world inside a shell and wanted to bring it to life, so I decided to cut out tiny paper building silhouettes and stick layers of them inside of a clam shell I had. I then lit it from inside, and despite it being poorly constructed and covered in glue, I found it so magical and beautiful to see the layers of paper light up from inside the shell. I only thought of it as play back then, so realizing that the seemingly silly little crafts I did as a child can manifest itself in my artistic practices is something that I love.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
At the end of the day, I think the most helpful resources are just things that inspire and spark emotion in people, so here are some sources of inspiration for me!
One of my favourite shows of all time is ‘Adventure Time’! It might be strange to list a cartoon as a resource, but in my humble opinion, it is a work of love and artistry. It may be easy to think that cartoons are mostly for children or only serve as entertainment, but the stories that they tell can still make us ponder and reflect, prompting us to consider a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Adventure Time is a show that I would recommend regardless of intended audience!
I’m currently reading ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Despite not having read the whole thing yet, the more I learn about it, the more it has become a book that I deeply appreciate. It is a book that explores something called “the gift economy.” It presents the way of indigenous philosophies, and shows alternatives to the capitalistic economic models we are so used to seeing today. The author combines their own botanical knowledge and weaves it into stories to make it digestible, fun, and inspiring to read. It is a lovely book that sparks hope for me!
Two other books I enjoy and recommend are ‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop’ by Satoshi Yagisawa, and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ by Diana Wynne Jones. These are contrasting books that I both enjoyed reading a lot. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop samples warming moments of mundane life and relationships, while Howl’s Moving Castle spellbinds you in a captivating fantasy world!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://miakc.cargo.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/7leafo/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@7leafo448?si=MqmXj8ylniJzmp3H
