We were lucky to catch up with Gloria Zhixin Yang recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gloria Zhixin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
My attitude towards being an artist has been changing, so I think I just choose to be someone who keeps on exporting creative ideas. And doing it for a long time also makes me more experienced and can do it better. Although sometimes the process has difficult moments, every stair climbing process is like this, which is called progress. I never thought of doing anything other than art, because in doing it I found the value of my life, so I am happy. Although I’m not officially working right now, from some of my internships experiences and hearing the experiences shared by freelance illustrators, I do hesitate to be a full-time freelance artist. The price of freedom often means more efficient time management skills, greater mental support, and the ability to be both conceptual and technical. I believe that after graduation, I will try to do some related work in order to better prepare for the future.
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 from China. I was exposed to art when I was young. I came to the United States to study in college. During my undergraduate years at the University of California, Berkeley, I studied fine art, photography, printmaking, design and other multi-media. These multi-element knowledge and interests all led me to choose illustration as my graduate program. In contrast to documentary photography, illustration constantly stimulates my imagination. I hope to connect reality and dreams through this medium, creating intriguing characters and any scene that people can freely travel through. I am currently in my second year of graduate studies at Maryland Institute of Art. Since the school emphasizes the use of multimedia, I have produced posters, narrative zine, comic, packaging design, editorial illustration, lifestyle illustration, picture book illustrations, screen prints and sculptures of various 3D media. In personal projects, I like to explore culture, identity, memory, and social connections, while in client based projects, I try to use my imagination within limited resources to create visuals that optimize the text or theme. I think I am good at and like to use scenes to tell stories, and I also like to use brilliant colors and childlike character styles to awaken people’s childhood memories and beautiful aspirations. At present, I am also actively practicing character design, and trying to create more bold and free elements in a picture, hoping to create a more humorous surreal world.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Because my illustrations tend to have some realistic logic in the imagination, my drawings may be more smoothly read than those that rely entirely on imagination. So, I think the most meaningful moment is when people can see themselves in my drawings, they may be curious, angry, happy, in love, confused. I hope that even if people feel restricted in the society, they can freely do what they want to do in my pictures, see the people they like, and shuttle in the endless landscape. At the same time, my illustrations also involve observations and issues in culture, identity and society. I hope that through my visual presentation, people can pay attention to some things happening in the real world and try to make some small changes or reflect on their behaviors.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
In general, I think my major study in university lacks some planning and logic. During the undergraduate period, most of the courses I chose were based on my interests. In my opinion, many courses in the university are introductory courses with a variety of content, aiming to let students know different ways to create. In the postgraduate stage, I think I gradually understand the direction I want to develop, so the course selection will be more targeted. If I can learn illustration early, I hope I can understand and experiment various application ways of illustration during my undergraduate study. For example, commercial illustration, personal illustration, narrative illustration and so on. Earlier exposure to these contents can help me effectively practice, understand the process of creation, and form my own visual language, so as to prepare my works and thesis more professionally in the graduate stage.
Contact Info:
- Website: gloryyzx.com
- Instagram: gloryyzx
Image Credits
Gloria Zhixin Yang