We were lucky to catch up with Bridget Zhong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Bridget, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Currently I work full-time as a painter’s assistant for a well-known contemporary artist in Brooklyn. On the weekends I work at a tattoo studio in Queens. Although I have a crazy working schedule, I am very happy doing what I am doing right now because making creative work keeps my mind fresh, and nothing is better than doing what you’re passionate about while earning money from it. It just never gets boring that way. My full-time job has a similar work schedule as a regular office job, but it is a lot more flexible than the latter. I was very lucky to have supportive colleagues and bosses who have the same education background but have been working in the industry way longer than I have. I was able to learn a lot about painting and tattooing from them, and I am very grateful for that.

Bridget, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started making oil and watercolor paintings during my sophomore year in college. I loved painting realistic portraits, and I would often ask my classmates and friends to pose for me. The most important decision I made during that time was to keep using traditional mediums for my work even though digital mediums were trending. It was definitely hard to keep the paintings going because a lot of times I could barely meet the deadlines for my assignments unlike a lot of my peers who were using digital mediums to make graphic illustrations. I have also heard a lot of discouraging comments regarding how painting photo-realistically is not considered “art” anymore. However, after AI became popular, the art industry began to recognize the value of physical artworks more. As soon as I was back in my studio after covid, I started painting again. It eventually paid off after I graduate as my portfolio had a consistent personal style that stood out from a lot of others. I always knew that I wanted to get into the tattooing industry, which was why I started my tattooing career right after I graduated. Besides doing fine line designs for my clients, I specialize in black and grey micro-realism and is open for custom commission. My painting style often shows through in my tattoo works. Since I paint a lot of figures and animals, I like to explore themes such as greek mythology and incorporate animal portraiture in my designs.

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

I think our community is definitely starting to recognize small artists and businesses more in recent years. I have artist friends who were invited to art fairs and pop up shows, which are great opportunities for us to build up our audiences and connect with each other. I think events like these should be organized more often, and there should be more social media exposure for them. Another thing I think society could do is to promote more job searching site for artists. As a recent graduate, even though I was able to find a full-time job right away, I know that there are a lot of art students struggling to provide for themselves, let along making their own creative projects.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As an illustration major, getting jobs while you were still in school is very hard, especially for international students. While I was anxious about job searching throughout senior year, I impulsively decided to start a three-month unpaid internship with a small gallery in West Village because I thought that gallery experiences would help me grow more as an artist. The internship ended up being a total waste of time as I didn’t learn any skills that were related to my field (I was mostly sweeping floors and doing chores). Worst of all, I wasn’t able to fully focus on finessing my senior portfolio because I was often exhausted in class. Looking back I think my mistake was that I did not look at the big picture. Choosing art as my career path is a long-term commitment which doe not really allow me to shift my attention to something else when I was panicking.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bridgetzly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetz_art
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridget-zhong-183236187
• Tattoo: https://www.instagram.com/bridget.ink