We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Han recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents, even though they didn’t understand my wish to be a creative person, instilled into me a very strong work ethic, which has served me well in all my endeavors. Being punctual and concerned about doing a good job are qualities that every industry values–creative or not.

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

I had artistic aptitude from an early age, but wasn’t really encouraged to pursue it until I convinced my parents that going to art school would be a good move for me. My degrees are in Illustration, and drawing and painting with traditional media is my foremost love, but while in college I took some computer classes and ended up getting into the graphic design field. Granted, this was in the mid-90s, so getting into graphic design was a lot easier than it is now, I think. Having those skills enabled me to have a steady design firm job for 20+ years, but it was definitely at the expense of my traditional media work.

In February of 2020 (totally unaware of the impending pandemic), I decided to go freelance with my design work and spend more time working on my fine art. That decision wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my wonderful spouse, but it still took a while for me to adjust. Now I’m able to devote more time to my fine art, but I still keep a hand in the graphic design game. In 2022 I became adjunct faculty at Irvine Valley College for digital media and in 2023 I started teaching the same subject at Long Beach City College. Teaching is a totally new challenge for me and I find it very rewarding. Now I’m a part-time designer, artist, and teacher, and I’m finding that I like the variety.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

In my fine art endeavors, I’m in complete control; I decide what images to create. Whether or not those images find outside validation is a totally different matter, but at the end of the day, artists only needs to satisfy themselves and feel they are doing the work they want to do.

Graphic design work, on the other hand, is a collaborative process, You bring your creativity to the table and work with clients in order to fulfill a project’s goals. When all the parts come together to create something that everyone feels is successful, that’s very rewarding.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It took me a while to learn that how much an art piece goes for is not a true measure of its worth. It would be great if artists didn’t have to worry about attaching monetary value to their work at all–pricing work is one of the things that I (and most artists) hate the most! I’ve definitely fumbled my way through pricing over the years, and it’s still a struggle. Taking workshops and talking to other artists about pricing has been helpful, but at the heart of the matter is we have to ask for what we feel our work is worth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stephaniehanart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steph.han.art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.han.artlb
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniehan/