We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ally Chen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ally below.
Alright, Ally thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?
Almost every boss I worked for are woman. As a female creative worker, I feel very lucky that I worked for these people. They have high standards, they are caring, and I learnt a lot from them. I worked as an intern for a lantern company when I just graduated from college. As I didn’t have much work experience , she gives me professional advice on building career path. In my work, there was one time when my work didn’t meet the requirements, but she didn’t blame me. Instead, she helped me solve the issues. And I’ve learnt how to solve problem in an urgent situation.
I have tried many different work since I entered college. Through my work experiences, I am learning not only about the tasks and industries but also about myself. I have discovered what tasks I would enjoy, and what work environments resonate with me, and how my personality aligns with certain types of work. I have worked for fine-art artists, printmaking studio, technology company, and also lantern event planning company. I found it is very important to choose company I like, and people that I want to work for, so I can produce artwork that really speaks to myself, and can bring personal growth through work.
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 am an illustrator who had just graduated from School of Visual Arts this year. I was born in China and currently living in New York. I choose the path of art pretty early, I gave up a highly ranked high school and go to an art school when I was 15 years old. Being an artist is always my dream, art influences the way I think and the way I live. I want to communicate with people through art. It is the way I express myself. I love jazz music, visualize the feeling of sound and music is always in my artwork, I hope there is a sense of rhythm in my lines and shapes. I also love dogs, Drawing dogs and petting dogs can bring me immediate happiness. I love sitting in parks and drawing dog sketches. Recently, I am creating my work in a more logical way. As I am learning design, I started to illustrate all my work after a deep consideration on whether every part works for its theme and my visual language.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
There are many times in art career that I had to pivot. When I was a child, I love drawing because I feel happy and I draw for myself, but now I work as an illustrator, I have to draw for other people. There would be times that I have to draw things that I disagree with. When I am not able to choose my client, I always being forced to draw the style I don’t like. For example. I have to draw a illustration poster for a Chinese company, and I don’t like the style I was asked to draw. But after I find out about the company culture, and their target audience, I understand why they want to design things in their certain way. I would tend to like the newest, experimenting art style. But for commercial, not all companies and customers are accepting the new style. It’s important to help clients to bring their ideas to real life.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My ultimate aspiration is to establish myself as a freelance illustrator, and develop my own unique voice to bring joy or inspiration to other people. As a female artist, I also wish there would be more female voices within the creative industry, and I want to contribute my modest efforts to advocate for women in the society.
Contact Info:
- Website: alllychen.com
- Instagram: @allly_chen
- Linkedin: Jiaxi Chen