We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah E. Huang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah E. below.

Sarah E., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Everyone defines success in different ways, and it’s subjective. In my context, success means staying true to yourself, playing to your strengths, and having the resilience to get back up and try again, even when you fail. I’m lucky I’ve had some amazing mentors to help me through my failures and see the positive side of it. For example, I did martial arts for many years, and when I felt like comparing myself to others, my instructors always talked about how hard work beats talent any day. Putting forth my best effort in everything I do made me realize that success is how you show up for yourself. Those lessons of perseverance and determination have stuck with me. In recent years, a major component of success has been establishing measurable goals, so that I have milestones to celebrate along the way. That’s how I build the motivation to keep on going. Celebrating each milestone, no matter how big or small, and taking stock of everything you’ve done to get there helps tremendously.

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’m Sarah E. Huang. Originally from Queens, New York, I currently live and work in sunny South Florida. I’m a Taiwanese-American multidisciplinary artist focusing on the interplay of cultural identity and memory. Through my paintings, drawings, and installations, I explore embracing one’s cultural roots through my meaty subjects rooted in reality and abstraction.

I grew up making tons of art. My mom was the first artist I ever looked up to. She taught me a lot. We also spent a lot of time in museums as a family, so art has been a big part of my life. Some of my early ‘dream’ careers included becoming an illustrator, animator, or even a graphic novelist. I loved telling stories. I loved being able to share my passion with others. I still do. Whether it was a special occasion, a birthday, or the holidays, I could rely on my art to bring joy to others. Even now, it warms my heart that so many of my friends and family have retained original artworks of mine from when I was younger!

I was often told by many different people in my life that there was no financial stability in pursuing an artistic career. I thought about that for a long time. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t deny the pull a creative career held for me. I had ‘normal’ jobs with a stable income and benefits, but these jobs seldom fulfilled my needs. I have always thrived in creative projects, helping others, and teaching. One day, I decided to go all-in, even if I needed to maintain several gigs at a time to make ends meet. As of now, I’m in my third year as a resident artist in my program. I teach abstract painting and contemporary art and serve on my city’s public art advisory board. It’s a much faster-paced lifestyle, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I feared turning my childhood hobby into a career for a long time. It wasn’t until college that I considered pursuing it professionally. I worked for several years in various fields, such as talent acquisition and business development, as well as in an arts non-profit doing operations. Towards the end of 2021, I started to think about where my artistic practice was going. I left my full-time job and didn’t have a fleshed-out plan. I knew I had to make more art, but I wasn’t sure where that would take me or what that would look like. Around the same time, a local arts incubator and gallery, Arts Warehouse, announced its 2021 Resident Artist applications. Like I said, I didn’t have a plan, but something told me this was exactly the opportunity I needed to throw myself into. I applied and was notified of my acceptance a few short months later. Since then, I’ve grown my business and artistic practice significantly over the last few years. It helped that a requirement of the application was having a well-thought-out business plan. Putting that together really put my goals into action, and every year, when I reflect on how far I’ve come, I’m always blown away by how much I’ve accomplished. I just celebrated my first full year managing my art business full-time, and it feels great.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

This isn’t necessarily about my journey, but I think just about creativity in general. Oddly enough, the people I meet who say they “can’t draw a stick figure” and identify as non-creative are some of the most creative folks out there. I teach abstract painting, and I always find it funny when I meet a student for the first time and hear their inspiration behind taking the class. Usually, they will tell me that they would like to find their creative voice or learn how to loosen up. Based on my experience, non-creatives struggle to understand that we are all born with the creative bug. It’s the twists and turns in life that tell some people that they aren’t “creative enough” or “talented.” But we all have the capacity to create beautiful things. Creative expression is a very human experience, and I’m glad that, at least for many of my students, they have found themselves coming back to finding themselves through creativity! I love that I can help foster that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sarahehuang.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahehuang
• Facebook: www.faccebook.com/sarahehuang

Image Credits
Image Credits: MasterWing Creative Delray Beach CRA Arts Warehouse Damon Higgins