We were lucky to catch up with Phil Yeh recently and have shared our conversation below.

Phil , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I knew I just wanted to draw for a living at 2 years old. I never stopped drawing from then on.

Phil , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started drawing at the age of 2. My dad was an engineer and he brought me lots of paper from his job. I did not have any toys. By the time I was in elementary school, I was already making my own books. When I was in high school, my friend Mark Eliot and I started a little magazine. We sold it at the student store. When we went to California State University Long Beach in 1972, I wanted to draw a daily comic strip. So I began one called Cazco in College. When a new editor who didn’t care for comic strips canceled Cazco in 1973, Mark and I started our own paper on campus called Uncle Jam. I should mention that we also had a studio in Anaheim where we painted a huge mural in 1972. This mural attracted much media attention in Orange County and gave me lots of work throughout the west. I even painted a cartoon mural on a small plane in Phoenix. Our art studio was producing t-shirts that I designed and greeting cards as well as artwork for advertising. In 1976, we opened an art gallery and studio in Long Beach, California. It was called The Cobblestone Gallery and had the world’s biggest selection of handmade greeting cards. We would even make a custom card for you for $3. Uncle Jam left the campus and was soon being published all over Southern California. We covered Health, Books, The Arts, and Travel. We were published monthly with many interviews with important people who had something interesting to say to the public. In 1985, inspired by an interview that I conducted with Wally Amos about his work promoting literacy, I decided to form Cartoonists Across America, an organization dedicated to promoting literacy using humor. The very first cartoonist to endorse our work was Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts. Soon cartoonists from around the world were participating in our campaign. We painted murals and gave away our pro-literacy comic books around North America. We were invited to paint a literacy mural in Budapest, Hungary in 1990, so we added “And the World” to our banner. Cartoonists from more than 40 countries joined us in Hungary and our world tour began. The Hungarian government even issued a postage stamp that I designed for The International Year of Literacy as declared by The United Nations. Since we started our campaign we have painted more than 2000 murals in 49 U.S. States and 18 other countries. We paint these murals on trucks, city buses, school and public walls, and on lightweight formcore board. I have personally written and illustrated 100 books (along with other artists). We continue to speak at schools, conferences and wherever people want to hear our message. For further information contact philyeh54@gmail.com or visit wingedtiger.com

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Money has never been a problem for completing my mission. Many times I have been dead broke on this journey. Never have I worried about taking a “real” job. Once I was on a train ride to Seattle and was busy painting my hand painted greeting cards on the trip up the coast. I was very poor on this trip. Soon I was selling what I had created to my fellow passengers. The conductor even treated me to dinner that evening. I should mention that it only took me a minute or two to create each card selling them at the time for $2 each. This was in the early 80s, today I would sell a card for $10 and up. I mention this as an example of how you can make money from your art anywhere on this planet.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal is to make any artist in any field to understand that you can make money doing something creative in any field. I pride myself on not having a “regular” job. It’s okay if that is your choice but for me, having the freedom to do as I want is everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: wingedtiger.com
• Facebook: phil yeh