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

Amo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew I wanted to be an artist as early as I could remember. To me, art has always been my language. I started my artist training back in primary school, and I never stopped making art ever since. I feel like I am on a lifetime marathon. Sometimes when I look back, I remember the times that I wondered if I was right about choosing art as a career. Whenever I doubted myself, I thought about how long I have gone on this path. I think when you keep doing something for a very long time, it becomes part of your personality. Art has changed my way of perceiving the world. It made me more open-minded and helped me find my community. I am forever grateful for that.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I graduated from Parsons school of design this year, and I am currently a Brooklyn-based artist and tattooist. My artwork usually deals with serious emotions. Even though I love to have cute animal figures in my drawings, you can still see the emotions in their eyes and body languages. I would say this is my way to reduce the heaviness of my art. Another reason why I love to draw animal figures is that they don’t have gender nor race. They are the pure representation of our emotions. I got into tattooing because I love to doodle made-up characters and assign background stories for them, sort of like when you were a little you played with your toys and made up stories. My inspiration comes from people around me. Sometimes I go to a coffee shop or to the parks to do people-watching and create stories about them.
I love tattooing because it makes me feel more connected with people. When I do custom designs I love hearing about my clients’ stories, so that I can feel emotionally connected with them and make the best design for them.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think it is important to understand that it might take a lot more time than it looks for an art piece. The creative process includes a journey of trying to find your own style, balancing the emotions you put into art and everyday life, as well as knowing how to promote yourself. Another thing I want to mention is that every artist has an art block sometimes, and what that means is from time to time artists struggle to find inspiration for new artwork. The art block can range from several days to even years. There is uncertainty in this period and pressure that comes with it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

To me making art is like a journey of finding my identity. My passion for making art helped me go through my darkest days. In my art I love exploring ways to express the confusion as a younger self. I think art has the power of connecting people. My goal is to share my work with other people who have similar experiences with me and let them know that they are not alone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://amozhou.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mintyktpillar/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amo-zhou-292433244/
• Other: tattoo instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rawr.ink/

Image Credits
Leiya Wang