We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Peach Tao a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Peach , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Background: I have been working as a muralist who works on a lot of community-based mural projects.
It’s always making me feel super emotional whenever I’m in a different neighborhood , school , or hospital and create the relationship with the people I interact with. And they are my audience.

One of the meaningful projects was the one I co-founded: Chinatown Mural Project.
Manhattan’s Chinatown had been hit extra hard since the pandemic began even before nyc’s shutdown. To boost morale, help attract foot traffic back into the area and add some much-needed color, I started the project with a local community activist Mr Chan who’s in his 6th or 7th decade living in Chinatown.
I’m the resident artist who design and lead painting colorful, and whimsical murals which reflects Manhattan’s Chinatown in a humorous way. We started with depiction of a noodle shop where a rabbit is serving up the roast duck over the noodle, and a happy tiger is chopping the scallions. We then installed 5 murals all over the area. Pigeons playing mahjong in tennement buildings, lion and dragon dance scene with animals in the audience, all 12 Chinese zodiac animals gather together having Dim Sum as brunch- the most iconic Chinatown activity of them all

We are completely crowd-funded and everytime we painted these walls, we make local residents smile.
I’ve had aunties came handing us warm dumplings. We had a real Mahjong table set up in front of the mural during Chinatown arts week , and passerby came to play the game. One most impressive moment, was that a lady with a walker came by when I was painting, told me she stays in the Homeless shelter nearby and she had never seen ” people in a wheel chair in murals “. Which made me realize ME Either. So in the next mural I included a fashionable lady in a 70s style pattern wheelchair , in homage to her style.

This mural project is definitely most dear to my heart and I’m grateful to be painting it. I felt it is a way for me to do something for the local community during the Pandemic. When I felt ” how can i help ?” . Now the murals are stops on Chinatown walking tours. I definitely aim to keep developing this project, install more murals with more artists from all over the world.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a Brooklyn-based muralist, illustrator and part-time art educator. I love creating whimsical images ( usually as murals on both walls and windows ) inspired by my environments and travelings around the world. I aspire to create works that evoke the feeling of having sweets on a Sunday afternoon :)

Born and raised in Beijing, China, I received a BFA in illustration and printmaking from Savannah College of Art and Design.

I’m currently full-time painting fun murals for all kinds of places : public schools, hospitals, small businesses, public parks, bars and restaurants etc.
A large portion of my murals are community-based murals. Meaning that I work directly with the residents / students of a certain community / school , create the design involving their ideas and input, then lead the painting process with them ( usually in the forms of a community painting day or painting classes ) . Sometimes they don’t get involved directly but my imagery reflects / pay homage .
I also paint a lot of commercial and personal murals for fun.
I love these kind of public-facing projects because it really makes me feel connected with people and a community and feeling the vibrancy of the local culture.
So far my murals can be found in all over NYC , Atlanta, Puerto Rico and Beijing, China. I hope my murals will fly to more places of the world !

My illustration and printmaking art work can also be seen in books, apparels, advertisements and many more.

In the summer of 2020, I paired up with local activist Karlin Chan and founded the Chinatown Mural Project , dedicated to creating colorful and humorous murals that reflect Chinese American life around Manhattan’s Chinatown to attract people back into the neighborhood and support local business. The project has been very well-received and was interviewed by CBSnews , NY1 to name a few.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

In my view , a Society can do the following to best support artists, creatives and an thriving creative ecosystem:

Taking care of the basic needs first, like basic housing, food, education, Then with enough funding to help people using art to express, involve, and elevate their lives. The theory is great and I believe everyone understands that, however it can only be done sadly when the leaders set aside specific funding to help make it reality.

I’ve been fortunate to work with a wide variety of community-based organizations championing different causes. It’s amazing to see there are soooo many people who actually do care and are doing some real actions. I’m thankful to be able to use my art to help being part of it.

Once one project is done, then it starts the snowball effect and it will bring more and more art project in people’s lives. It’ll improve the life quality and more attention, and help the snowball grow.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew about earlier in my creative journey that a lot of grassroot art organizations are out there. Find your community ( more like stumble upon ) is really helpful , the comrade-ship and the connections will lead to more interesting paths.

Contact Info:

• Website: peachtao.com
• Instagram: @peacheeblue

Image Credits
artist : Peach Tao Most of the photos are from my phone The one with A tiger on the playground and the Blue wall with pink flowers and a turtle, rooster, and an egg running… Those two are photographed by Ben @just_a_spectator