Life & Work with Yuen Wang

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuen Wang.

Hi Yuen, 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?
My name is Yuen (Yui) Wang, and I am a proud Chinese-American story artist from New Jersey. Following my elementary school passion of becoming an animator, I headed to Florida to complete my BFA in Computer Animation and fell in love with the art of storyboarding. Currently, I am living in Los Angeles, California and working as a storyboard artist at South Park Studios.

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?
I have been in love with drawing for as long as I could remember. Ever since I learned to hold a pencil, no surface was safe from my art. As a toddler, I’d draw with crayons on the wall, splatter paint on the floor, and even doodle on my body with washable markers. Despite the obvious chaos of my self-expression, my parents never discouraged me from creating. Instead, they decided to enroll me in art classes from age 6, which I continued until age 18. Throughout my years of schooling, extra-curricular classes, and other hobbies, art classes acted as a consistent source of confidence, community, and consistency in my life. Despite this fact, though, I had a lot of trouble getting “good” at art—and felt that a lot of students around me were more talented, more hardworking, and more skilled than I.

For that reason, I’d say my biggest struggle navigating the art world was learning not to compare myself to those around me. For a long time, perceived “skill” was what I considered to be the only thing that made me valuable as an artist. As I continued to grow, though, friends and teachers encouraged me to appreciate my unique voice and its value- as well as taught me the importance of storytelling (of which no two are the exact same). Now, I pride myself in being able to use my admiration for others’ work as a tool to build myself (and them) up, instead of feeling the need to belittle. It is very important to me to be able to appreciate a wide range of art without diminishing my own, and understand that there is more than perceived “skill” to consider when it comes to artistic expression.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My favorite type of art to make centers around real and raw storytelling. I draw a lot of inspiration from the queer experience, the Chinese-American experience, and the only-daughter-to-an-immigrant-family experience. I love to find poetry in the mundane, and capture moments that show how light, bright, heavy, dark, and worth it life can be. Because of this, the mediums that help me best express myself is personal storyboards and comics. These two sequential mediums best capture the delicacy and nuance of human relationships that I’d like to portray—and hopefully allow readers to relate easily and feel less alone.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
As a kid, I was always really curious and innocent. I remember feeling immense guilt for breaking rules, always being shy and reserved, and overall wanting to stand out as little as I could. I loved reading and drawing and socialized very little with kids my age who weren’t into either hobby. My understanding of American culture and customs were shaped mostly by media and school, considering my parents were both born and raised in China. As I grew up and became more comfortable expressing myself, I would still consider myself reserved and introverted, but much more comfortable in who I am.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yuiwang.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chopsyui/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuen-wang/