We were lucky to catch up with Dongyan Xu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dongyan, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I grew up believing I was not going to be an artist. I believed it was not realistic, and I had no talent, and I would never be good enough to make money. I went to college for architecture because in my country being an architect is viewed as a promising goal to pursue. And I was BAD at architecture. I liked it but not enough to want to take it as a career. Also, apparently architecture was not an easier path than art? I might as well transfer to art school and draw cute girls and weird monsters instead. (Here I am yelling at high schoolers to not repeat my mistakes and research your major very well before committing to the thing.)
However, what really pushed me to make my decision was the moment when I realized I would regret it if I didn’t even try. Every moment in my life I would wonder “what if I was an artist,” and looked at the grass on the other side and believed it was greener. Maybe the grass would be just the same, or even less green. However, that longing itself can grind people down over the years and eventually drive them crazy. For me the “what if” was already making everything bland and insufferable. I would not know if I could become an artist or not if I did not even attempt, and in that case I’d rather give in to actions than staying away wondering about the possibilities.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am an illustrator; I draw things for fun and for money (hopefully.) I mainly do editorial illustration and book illustration, and some surface design stuff on the side. I work in two slightly different artistic styles, one with thin lines and intricate details, the other with bold lines and color blocks. I am fascinated by lines and textures; I am considering doing some abstract drawings sometime in the future. I am very interested in the topics of mental wellness, relationships, and individual emotions. For a lot of my personal work I draw strange monsters of various sizes and types. They are not evil or scary; usually they are just being themselves and doing their own things. Naturally, their existence disturbs my characters’ mind or messes up their life, but that is the confrontations that the characters have to face and figure out instead of avoid or ignore. The monsters I draw are not evil fanged things hidden in the woods; they are the Baobab Trees that eat little stars if left uncared for.
Recently, I am also experimenting with short animated gifs using Clipstudio Paint. Adding motions to illustrations opens up many more expression possibilities. Although there are still many things to figure out, I am very excited about the things I can create once I get more familiar with the program and workflow.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I once read something like “society cares about art but not artists.” That one always stays in my mind. We want nice products to consume and enjoy, but it is very easy to forget that there are actual people that make them. Artists and creatives are just ordinary people that need money to buy bread and rice too. Yeah we have our dreams and ambitions but doesn’t everyone have that too? Some of those ambitions are not even grand ones. Want to be self-sustainable. Want to make your family proud. Want to be rich enough to afford medical bills if emergencies happen. Want to create something nice. Want to make people happy. Want to be happy. Those are all very ordinary hopes.
For the actual ways to support, there are already all kinds of good answers out there about how to support each kind of artists in many different ways. Buy their products. Share their work. Tell them if you like their art. Just… Be kind. Artists and creatives are people too, and people get tired and sad and filled with worries about the future. There is no magic over there; when you enjoy something, that thing happened because someone worked hard for it somewhere you do not see.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It might be a boring answer; the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is you get to make things and show it to others. You are not just a consumer; you are adding things to the world. You create something new with your hands and your mind, sharing part of yourself with others through the artwork you make. In my opinion art is always about telling stories and making people feel. It is human nature to want to connect with other people, to be understood, and to be remembered. Art is a way to achieve that. Another aspect is it is almost guaranteed that you will get better at doing art over time. It is not a smooth curve; you might get worse at art sometimes, I assume. But even when you go astray it is still a lesson learned. Everything you experience just adds to your work, making it richer and better. With enough practice things you struggle with will get easier, and you will learn skills you did not know before. There is no end goal to reach or ultimate question to solve; it is not a race or a math problem. There is always something to explore, to learn, to yearn for. As long as you keep making things, you will get better at it, and you will be able to see things you could not see in the past.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dongyanxu.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dongyanxu_art/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongyan-xu-84a172121/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dongyanxu_art
• Other: Print Shop: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/dongyanxu_art/