Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuanyuan Zhou.
Hi Yuanyuan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My experience to be an illustrator was full of happy accidents and surprises. There was no way on the earth I would know I will be an illustrator five years ago, but to be fair, there was no way I would know I would be a teacher in Turkey ten years ago. As a person who enjoys adventures, I am very comfortable taking the raft of life and see where it leads me to. I have always used drawings in my class and created teaching materials for school.
In 2019, my colleague and a good friend suggested me to be a professional illustrator and in the same year, I left my full-time job and applied for grad school for illustration. Entering the master’s degree Illustration Practice program in MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) was the game changer for me. It opened the door and showed me what it like to be an illustrator as profession. I have learned and grew so much from these two years of study. Now I am about to graduate and preparing myself for a more challenging environment. I am very excited to put my skills and knowledge in different kinds of practical projects.
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?
The road for me to be an illustrator was never been smooth, but it is arduous path full of treasure boxes and shooting stars, it’s not easy but very exciting to climb through. One of my recent struggles was with my grad show exhibition. I am very happy it has been accomplished exactly as I pictured and I have learned so much from the process I would like to share. As a self-taught artist who never had the experience installing exhibition and limited knowledge with gallery curation, when I realize I have a whole white empty wall to fill within two-day installation times, I don’t really know what to do, time is ticking and pressure’s going up. With the help from our programme director Whitney Sherman through several one on one sessions, I came up with an idea. My thesis is a 28-page long non-fiction book about Wedgwood, one of the well-known English pottery. I really admired his contribution on making pottery mass-produced and made porcelain and tea enjoyable for majorities. So I planned to use one spread from my book as a mural to present the crowds. A few highlighted pages would be hanging, also need a place to place the book dummy and a porcelain plate I made, also I want to make it dimensional so it’s not flat, and audience can have different views as they walk around.
The plan sounds great, but I had no idea how to accomplish all those. My cohort introduced me to vinyl, Whitney shared with me the vinyl making factory’s contact info, and the school’s grad lab staff sharing a lot of knowledge with paper type, glue and stands. With everybody’s help and care I received, I was able to move forward to the fabrication part. One problem with vinyl I had was I should prepare my file as the actual size of the wall so the image remain clear, and the wall size was huge! So I actually end up redraw the spread with some changes. I also fabricated the foam core stands and hand bind the book dummy. The whole process of making them took two weeks. Finally, with the help of Pooja and Gloria, my cohort and close friends, I was able to install in 2 days and was extremely with how it turned out.
I had so many of “the first time” during this whole experience, and I have gained so much, not only the technique and craft skills but also I have grew so much from it. After the exhibition, I had a conversation with Whitney during our one on one session, she asked me what I felt about it. To look back on it, she made me realized it helped me so much to make me believe in keep learning, to be confident with my work and my ability, to express and make decisions, to trust others. So when I think about it again when I am writing this, I see it not struggles, rather, I would call it a process of collecting shooting stars and finding treasure boxes.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My works are always about people. I love spending hours on the street or sitting in a cafe staring at people, see what do they do, how they dress up, how they talk and how they smile. I really enjoy immersing myself in the crowds and keep doing that unconsciously. I didn’t know what all those meant for until I see it reflected in my illustrations. What I enjoyed my works most are the personalities showing through my characters and the vibe they bring as a whole. I think that is what I am most proud of, not a particular piece, but every time when I draw, their clothes, their facial expression, the details and the personal touch that help bring the characters alive.
I enjoy doing commissioned editorial work for articles. I had a wonderful experience with The Guardian and Full Bleed creating editorial works for them. I really enjoy the process of conceptualizing. It shares information, helps to light up a serious topic, but also, it allows me to add my voice and reflect what I see from the article visually. Being able to have my own voice along with the authors is an honor.
Now I am trying to expand and broaden my possibilities in the children’s book field. For my thesis, I made a book dummy, A True Story of Wedgwood: Bring Elegance to the daily table. It is a tea bag-shaped non-fiction book about Josiah Wedgwood, the founder and his pottery Wedgwood. I am now developing the ability to write and illustrate, I am very excited to put more of my voice in the art piece and share with people who are interested in. One spread from this book is nominated to be featured in Colossal, an art blog. I am very excited to see part of it coming to the public and working on the next step for this book!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think being persistent is definitely helping in the long run. I often struggled as an artist coming from a non-art background. I studied in accounting and worked as a teacher for several years. Most of my time I have been dealing with things that actually have a right or wrong answer. For accounting, the numbers and facts are objective, and they will be the indicator for decision-making, for teaching, there will be guidelines and methods leading the teaching process. But there is no right or wrong answer for art, everything can be a subject and every method is approachable. There is no definition as a good art or what is ugly. I often felt lost on what I should do or try.
Gradually I understand I have to trust myself and my instinct, hesitation and overthinking would not be helpful for any progress, I have to keep on creating and illustrating even I don’t know what will be ahead, the instinct and feedback from others will lead me to what I want to achieve. I feel persistence, to continuously making artwork even though you don’t know where those will lead you is very important. The understanding part always come a little bit behind, when I finished a piece, leave it for a while and then looked back, I might able to say what I have learned from that process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yuanimosart.com
- Instagram: @yuanyuanzhou_art
