Daily Inspiration: Meet Angelica Hadiwibowo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica Hadiwibowo.

Hi Angelica, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia to a household of six (eight, including my grandparents) and am the oldest daughter, though my brother is my senior by 6 years. As you can imagine, it’s always been a very vibrant, full house, and my parents have always been devoted to enriching our lives with the beauty of the world. My first plane flight was too early to even remember. I was one year old and on a trip across the world to the US! It’s been family trips from then on out: Japan, Malaysia, Korea, China, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, etc, — and as a child, it introduced me to just how colorful and diverse life was outside my little urban bubble.

Of course, that only fueled my pre-adolescent mind as I ran around the rooms of my house, creating scenarios and characters that my sisters would act out with me. I was quick to translate this onto paper, our rooms smelling of crayon and wet paint, badly drawn family portraits stuck in glass cabinets every time a holiday came rolling around. My parents were supportive, and the crayons eventually upgraded into colored pencils and markers and all kinds of paint: watercolor, acrylic, and oil. My mother always tells me I was born with an eye for detail.

Then as middle school rolled around, so did the internet. I was honestly probably too young to be on there at the time, but traveling came easy over the web and so did friends. I found groups and communities across the globe who I could nurture these half-formed ideas with, a distance of oceans bridged by scribbles. I was dedicated, to say the least. I set alarms at 3 am during school days to wake for events before reluctantly getting ready for school two and a half hours of fun later. I drew pages upon pages, filling binders of comics in addition to my higher-level class workloads and after-school activities. I remember paying for my online subscription with fake internet money that I got doing commissions at the age of thirteen.

At fifteen, I over-ambitiously set up a booth at a con with my good friend (we were technically too young to set one up, but had help from her mother), illustrating a book and creating 32 different pin designs, as well as posters and stickers. It was probably one of the most stressful moments of my adolescent life, pulling all-nighters to make space for schoolwork and drawing myself to the ground. I sure as hell didn’t know what I was doing, but it was exhilarating, and I wouldn’t change a second of it.

So, of course, that led me to art school, where I was accepted into the Savannah College of Art and Design. It was the first time I truly felt like I had a physical community. Despite being alone, I didn’t feel lonely, and in the hustle and bustle of it all, I thrived. I pursued Sequential Arts (a major I hadn’t even known existed) and eventually graduated with two additional minors in storyboarding and drawing. My family was my foundation, my professors and friends were the building blocks, and as fate would have it, I met my future husband there (shoutout to the golden retriever to my black cat half, Max de Berardine)!

He introduced me to his side of the art world, where I was then convinced to apply for my master’s degree in Costume Design at Texas State University.

In Theater.

For a while, I wondered what I was thinking. I wasn’t a theater nerd; I never have been! I purposefully took music instead of drama, and my art was the quiet kind, where I could sit in a corner and not be bothered. But then I saw my drawings come to life, fabric shifting with movement, sparkles catching stage lights on larger-than-life characters, and I think I fell in love a little bit. I worked at the University as a TA, then eventually a professor, juggling between being the official adult in the room while also frantically finishing my own class assignments. It was a difficult three years, but I came out of it on the other side with experiences and achievements I would never have had otherwise.

That being said… at the end of the day, I feel mostly like an overgrown child playing make-believe and drawing my silly little characters with friends, just like I used to, waiting for my next big thing.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’d be lying if I said I’ve had no struggles, though relatively speaking, I want to say it’s been fairly smooth starting into art. I’d been blessed with a comfortable home life and parents who loved me enough to want to see me thrive. There was a moment when my relationship with my mother turned just a little contentious, her belief in me lying in my academic achievements rather than my artistic ones. Art is safer as a hobby than a career, after all, but at the end of the day, when it truly came time to choose, my parents chose my happiness, and that’s a gift I would never be able to take for granted.

Beyond that, I think just moving into a new country to leave my safety net behind was a big leap. I discovered myself in ways I never even entertained before, growing up in a conservative country. I’m a queer Asian woman who married a Trans man (I divulge this with his permission) and have been living in the South for the last seven years before moving here. At times, it was absolutely an uphill battle.

I left my comfortable life to pursue my dreams, and if I didn’t succeed, that was on me. As an international student, seeking jobs was and is incredibly difficult, navigating the bureaucratic system of academia, the government and the workforce has been an incredibly stressful process. Having stipulations around the things I can and can’t do and the work I can and cannot take feels like active sabotage, and at times, giving up seems like the easiest option.

And every time I feel that way I’m reminded of why I shouldn’t. My friends, family, professors– the people I’ve met along the way all believe in me, and who am I to truly doubt them? I’m lucky enough to have people to catch me if I fall, and if that makes me Icarus, well, sometimes if you fall for long enough, that feels like flying too.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Condensing myself into bite-sized pieces has always been incredibly difficult for me. For 16 years, I’ve gone through the conveyor belt of academia, assembled and packaged neatly in little boxes by many different hands, all to present a product: myself. And like many others, I strive to be different. Stand out. Leave my mark. Tell my story.

But to tell the truth, it’s hard to truly feel set apart. As an artist I feel like I’ve jumped around from comics, to illustrations, to storyboards, to costume designs, hell, at one point I took on rug tufting and stained glass. In each field, there will always be someone worse and someone better than me, and I guess as a creative, it’s hard to judge something so personal. I’ve chipped little pieces off many great artists to create a mosaic painting of all the things I found most charming.

As my own greatest critic, it’s hard for me to choose something I’m proud of most times, although I have to say, my work and the experiences I went through as the Costume Designer for Into The Woods is something I look back on fondly. I got to work with one of my good, good friends, Rachel Aho (lighting designer), as well as my husband (scenic designer), to tell a story of families and legacy, a mish-mash of children’s lessons through the lens of a storybook. Quite literally. Our designs landed on a whimsical paper-made fantasy, where we worked as a team to dress the sets and characters and even sound using paper. It was a lesson in creativity and determination, of teamwork and late nights and making the impossible not so daunting. I think what I loved so much about the outcome was how it elevated the performance to tell the story rather than just show it.

I suppose if I’m talking about my greatest love and the one thing I keep going back to, it would have to be stories and characters. I love people and the way they change the world around them. I want to capture the vibrancy of lived lives, the holes that wear through the thick jeans of skaters who keep getting up after falling, and the bent fingers of a woman who’s spent years taking care of her sick husband’s aching muscles. The earring dangling on the right lobe of a man kneeling in church. If I can make you FEEL as an artist, as a human, I’m content.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I sat here for a good ten minutes trying to wrack my brain for something deep about myself to divulge, but honestly, I’m not sure, and y’all are probably tired of reading long-winded answers! So instead, here’s a list of fun facts about me that you may/may not know!:

⋆ I am the proud stepmom of two black cats!
⋆ I love dressing up for occasions, and that includes cosplay!!
⋆ I play dnd with my husband a lot. I’ll occasionally make animatics/short comics for it. I’m really just a bit of a loser.
⋆ I’ve been trying to learn how to play the piano, guitar and ukulele for forever. I’m not terribly good, but I’ve always deeply wished I had a talent in music!
⋆ I write lit RP sometimes! When drawing becomes too much, reading and writing are my next go-to.
⋆ I LOVE to eat; my family trips revolve around food. It’s my guilty-not-so-guilty pleasure!!

Pricing:

• Fullbody Renders: $85 – $130
• Half-body Renders: $70 – $100
• Portrait Renders: $50 – $70

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.angelicaclarah.com/
• Instagram: aclaraharts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelica-hadiwibowo-a888bb184/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu0XvPfBHSgJM-XqhXOw77A

Image Credits
Bret Brookshire