Check Out Yasmine (Yuanying) Xu’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yasmine (Yuanying) Xu

Hi Yasmine, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started to draw comics and learning animation since middle school. Back then, like a lot of other peers living in China, I was very into the world of ACG. I kept drawing things and having daydreams about the story I read and watched all day long, and finally decided to write my own. That’s how I started to have the desire to become a story teller. I then stepped on the path of being an artist, learning systematic painting skills, going to the art galleries, and then going to a university where I majored in visual communication and animation. Right now, I am a second-year master’s student learning in the experimental animation program at CalArts, one of the top art schools that are especially good at educating talents in storytelling and animating.

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?
Learning animation is really enjoyable while making animation is another story. When I started to develop my thesis concept during undergraduate, I wished I could complete it on time but I just kept adding things inside and turned out to be a double length piece compared to my preproduction plan.
As liana finck said in their comics passing for human , if you intend to create a world, you need to leave the real world behind. But then as a director, you still need to take certain consequences, like cannot present your thesis on time and not getting enough feedback among the audience lol.

I also had struggled with how to choose from fine art to commercial, cuz it seems like a cliche that you have to have certain preferences between those two directions. But it is also important that you want to make sure you are following your heart, not being afraid to the possible risk caused by lean to either of them while not able to put enough time on the other.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My artworks are mostly 2D animation short, including handmade features. I did glass animation, sand animation, light animation and hand drawn animation. I am also now learning how to make a puppet. I enjoy my job best when I am in front of certain materials, an entity, something that is really existing in this world, that I am able to touch, feel and sense. I also draw illustrations and other forms of art sometimes.
In terms of the subject, My art practice is mainly based on my personal experience and, presently, my artistic creation has involved some distinct issues, such as local culture, psychological experience, memory, etc. I was born in Shanghai, China. I became deeply interested in the traditional culture of Shanghai, and could speak Shanghai Dialect, when I was still a little girl. I once participated in a project of comic strips relating to Shanghai Songhu War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression when I was a junior middle school student. At that time, I became acquainted with a senior artist who specialized in painting comic strips of traditional Chinese stories. Since then, I have become rather interested in history and traditional stories told by graphic language. While working on my undergraduate thesis film Fireworks, I tried to restore some traditional elements of celebrating festivals, which might have been forgotten by the public, through the personal memories of some of my friends and myself.

How do you think about happiness?
For me, Animation is like the glue that links the real world and our spirit. This is why I chose experimental animation. It is the art of tolerance and looseness, which enables the artist to compose a language with even an extremely subtle thought. The flowing images can attract the audience in terms of rhythm and visuals, and furthermore, is also a bridge that allows for an efficient and precise dialogue between the viewer and the artist. Most interestingly, after viewing a series of works by a certain artist, I often feel a psychic connection with them and thus can figure out and understand their character and temperament. As a beginning artist, I increasingly feel that animation is bound to become a more popular and universal art form in the current world of efficiency and material progress. In this context, I strongly hope that my artworks can evoke the exploration of people’s own culture and individual memories. Also, I would be thrilled to link the memories of the past with contemporary issues in an attempt to find more new possibilities for the language of contemporary art.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminexyy614/

Image Credits
All Image made by myself.