Today we’d like to introduce you to Clarisse Chua.
Hi Clarisse, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
So I was born in Singapore and grew up in a Chinese-Indonesian household. I used to draw characters and comics from a very young age and would pitch them to my older brother.
My parents are divorced and my dad would take us out to see movies on Sundays after church. I remember one day he took us to see Howl’s Moving Castle. A scene with an airship popped up and my dad leaned over to me and said “Imagine if you could make that.” I thought to myself “Imagine if I COULD make that.” and that’s how it all started. My interest in film-making and especially animated films grew from there. I started researching Miyazaki which led me to Disney and DreamWorks which led me to Spielberg, Fincher, Tarantino and so much more.
I being inspired my Disney cartoons and Japanese anime, I decided I wanted to study traditional hand drawn animation. At the age of 18, I moved to Japan in pursuit of that. After two years of art and language prep school, I made it into Tama Art University in Tokyo. Even though my art education in Japan was going well, I found myself wanting more. Wanting to not just learn about how to make characters move but how to create convincing characters and how to tell great stories with them. This led me to discover California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). I applied and got in on my first year.
It was everything I imagined. Intensive animation and storytelling classes alongside long hours of working on our short films every year. With CalArts, I was able to hone my voice and create short films. Even as an industry story artist now, I still want to continue creating.
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?
Being traditional, my parents were very against the idea of me pursuing the arts and animation. Their focus was on what made money and they did not see how I could earn a living with art. When I was younger, they believed that my art dreams were a phase and that I would come to my senses sooner or later. I often begged for art classes to no avail. It took quite a bit of convincing from some supportive relatives for them to finally allow me to take a “how to draw manga” class, which in hindsight was a terrible class for 12 year old me to take, and eventually a portrait drawing class.
I had my fair share of school rejections growing up. Education in Singapore was strict and competitive in Singapore. I wanted to be the best and do my best for my parents. I applied to schools through my art and academics to get into ‘better’ schools with ‘better’ art programs. Unfortunately, many told me that I was neither clever enough nor was my art good enough for their programs and that I had to stop drawing cartoons.
Sometimes it still amazes me that I eventually got into Tama Art University and California Institute of the Arts. I would not have made it if not for all my previous rejections. Me wanting to go to top art schools pushed me to further my foundational drawing skills along with my passion for films and stories.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Coming from a multi-cultural society like Singapore, I was always intrigued by cultural traditions and was sad that my own seemed so diluted. I had family living all around the world, the US, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Japan and Singapore. Even though we lived all around the world, our customs were Chinese-Indonesian and Chinese-Singaporean in nature. I always wanted something more specific growing up as a kid between Singapore and Indonesia. But now that I am older, I have come to love the duality of my heritage and want to learn even more.
I learnt about other cultures through myths and stories. I grew to love fantastical tales and learning about mythical creatures. When I was first introduced to Lord of the Rings, I figured that I could even make my own cultures!
I learnt about humanity through fantasy and that is something I always try to bring to my work. For example, my short film ‘Taku & Mama’ was inspired by the Tengu mythology and my relationship with my parents. In Singapore, it felt like we did not have any cool mythology like other countries, so I wanted to create my own with ‘The Kitchlets’. The Kitchlets were inspired by home deities that take care of our households that seemed to be present in many cultures, such as the Scottish Brownies, Greek’s Hestia, goddess of the hearth and Chinese Kitchen Gods just to name a few.
Films and stories were always an escape for me and I want to create that space for people along with telling important stories that express a universal human condition.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The animation industry has been moving online. COVID seemed to have pushed this inevitability even quicker. This means the difference between animated features and series are getting smaller and smaller. Nowadays, we are seeing feature quality series being made and I see this as an opportunity to expand the types of animated stories we are telling.
As we are at home and getting used to streaming, people are demanding more content. This mass production is causing some great work to be buried under the massive amount of animation and entertainment being put on our streaming sites. I hope streaming and production studios will take into account quality over quantity as we move forward. There are many great shows on Netflix for example, but also many strange unnecessary ones.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://clarissechua.weebly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claweeese/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarisse.d.chua/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCumKBHnA0x7TW3-mmAuxKyQ
