Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Kuo.
Hi Karen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always been a fan of doodling as a kid, definitely the terror that drew on walls and any blank surface. All the way up until I went to college, I was unsure what I wanted to do. I started out as an animal biology major, then jumped to fine art, double majored in technocultural studies (it’s like a science fiction film major with some editing classes mixed in), before finally attending a design college for entertainment arts.
Storytelling was always something I was interested in and telling these stories through paintings and drawings became my new love. I was lucky to get a job upon graduating, worked a year in games, and then jumped to animation, where I’ve been for the last 6 years. I have to say, even after all this time, each day is always different, a new problem to solve. I feel really lucky that despite my winding journey, I’ve ended up in a pretty good spot!
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?
Haha definitely has been a pretty winding road; I think any shortcuts I thought I was taking was still the long route. But I think that the things I picked up along this journey really shaped how I’ve developed as an artist and as a person.
For a long time (and still somewhat even now) it’s been a struggle to separate myself as an artist, from my career in animation. It’s a delicate balance, all art I make feels relatively personal, but in a broadly collaborative environment, it’s important for me to delineate what I value as an artist for my personal work, and what I value as an artist in a studio setting. Both are equally important, but I think that learning to assign value to myself, not necessarily based upon my career, is something that I have learned in the past few years, in hopes of maintaining that love and joy of making art.
It’s easy to lose sight of why I started drawing in the first place, like, it’s ok to make funky, weird, ugly drawings for myself! I think back to when I was younger and didn’t judge the value of my drawings as a kid, and I hope to work towards having that mindset again for my own art.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve worked in animation for about 6 years. My emphasis is Visual Development and Art Direction. I’ve worked on a variety of TV and Feature projects, long and short, and have really enjoyed the variety of visual problems to solve that goes along with them. I feel really lucky to have been able to work at a lot of different studios, on a myriad of different projects.
Most proud of, hm. I suppose I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to be part of so many projects and to see them to finish! It’s really satisfying to see the finished show and to see other people enjoy it. Also, it’s always funny when some of my jokes make it to screen haha.
I guess in terms of what sets me apart from others, would probably be my disturbingly high attention to detail, it just comes with the territory of being a set designer I think haha.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being able to adapt. Pipelines and project schedules are always variable and sometimes chaotic, I think it’s really important to be able to quickly adapt and pivot, based on the needs of the project. Good communication aids a lot in that, I think that being a good designer requires a decent amount of soft skill, such as interpersonal communication, verbalizing my process, and being able to visually describe concepts in a really clear and concise manner. So much of my job is collaborating, so I think that these skills are really critical, both to make the best of designs, as well as to properly communicate my ideas to others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thestatuskuo.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/lestatuskuo
- Twitter: twitter.com/lestatuskuo
