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

Sarah , appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I am traveling full time and making art all over the world. I normally apply for artist in residency programs so I can create bigger pieces in a professional space and be able to connect with other artists from different countries. But I also rent airbnb with a huge table and great sunlight to paint when I want to be alone. I have been moving around my whole life – I went to art school in London, then moved to New York City for 7 years (2010-2017), and I also opened two restaurants in Shanghai between 2017-2022. I also participated many artist in residency projects and have exhibited worldwide. I am very familiar with traveling and moving around. Travels make me a better artist! Now with instagram and social media, it’s easier to reach collectors online. I just need to carry all my paint brushes and canvases in my suitcase then I could paint anywhere everywhere!

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

Born in Hong Kong, I am a nomadic mixed media artist traveling full time and making art all over the world. My female portraits depict the inner and outer ideals of self with physical attributes. Piecing together magazine imageries with painted surfaces and found materials, my spectacular and provocative portraiture explore the split nature of cultural identity, referencing consumerism, fashion and contemporary politics.

Repulsive and ludicrous, my eerie portraitures are also simultaneously attractive and glamorous: Paradoxical faces consist of animal parts, individual human body, wild plants, modern architecture, old ma- chine components. i engages in my own form of story telling, my scarred figures struggle to voice their identity.

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

It’s not about becoming famous or making a lot of money, it’s about who I become while I’m painting.

Painting makes my life more meaningful, and every piece is a journey itself. There is no failure in art, it’s always an inspiration and lesson for the next piece.

My lifetime mission will be keep creating amazing paintings from my full time travels!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I always had a dream to have an art cafe where I could serve coffee and pancakes, display my paintings on the wall and host workshops. After 7 years living in London and 7 years in New York, I decided to move to Shanghai in 2017 to make the dream come true. I chose to do this in Shanghai as I am Chinese but I knew very little about China (I lived most of my life in the UK and US). I also did a two month artist in residency in Shanghai in 2012 and thought Shanghai was pretty cool.

I started with a small pancake cafe in Shanghai in late 2018 and already expanded into a brunch restaurant in late 2019, the venue was on a ground level with 88 seats in the main shopping street, I had 16 staffs at that time too. After 2 months of opening, covid broke out and we had to close for a few months due to lockdown. When I reopened in mid 2020 I had so much debts to pay back and I just started this big restaurant. I tried so hard to improve my food quality, service, efficiency, operation and staff management. In 2021 my brunch restaurant became top 1 western restaurant in the whole district, I would never imagine I could make this dream come true, I thought I was just a dreamy hipster artist. 3 years of running this restaurant taught me a lot especially in logics, productivity and management, I also became a totally different person – much more resilient and positive. We went through a lot of ups and downs during 4 years of covid and eventually in 2022 the big Shanghai lockdown put paid to the venture, I lost all the money that I made over all these days. But I told myself I learnt so much and I was still young, I started all over again with my art and another photography side business. Now I m living the dream life traveling full time and making art all over the world. All my travels are supported by the sales of my artwork!

Failures are just a little chapter in our lives, you are not starting all over again, you are starting from experiences!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sarahtse.com
• Instagram: sarahtse
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SarahTseART
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TseSarah