We were lucky to catch up with Sunny Yen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sunny, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is “Hedgehog and His Cacti”, a series of paintings that I’ve been developing since 2020. It started as a small painting of a hedgehog watering a cactus to a point where it’s overflowing. The meaning behind this image is “selfish love”. The hedgehog didn’t try to learn or understand the needs of a cactus, just dumped a bucket of water onto it without thinking, not knowing his action would cause the death of the cactus.

I quickly realized I was putting my personal experience into the painting. During that time I had a lot of issues with my parents, thinking they were very controlling, always telling me “I’m doing this for your own good”. I felt pressured and saw myself as that drowning cactus.

However, after I started making more paintings about the relationship between the hedgehog and his cacti, I realized the hedgehog isn’t a perpetrator, but simply a lonely soul who wanted to be loved as well. He doesn’t know how to love because he was never loved, so he projected his feelings of loneliness to the cactus and gave all his love to it.

It’s amazing how we can learn from what we created. Through the process of making this series, I learned to look at things from different perspectives. I also learned how to communicate my needs, how to empathize with others, and the art of loving. This project is meaningful to me because it helps me to become a better person.

Sunny, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Sunny Yen. I was born and raised in Taiwan and went to Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) to study Illustration. After I graduated from MICA, I came back to Taiwan and started my career as an artist. I sell my art by attending art fairs and exhibiting at art galleries.

Since my college years at MICA, animals have been my greatest subject and inspiration. Animals are a huge part of human history and culture, their imageries are often used in arts as symbols. I play with human knowledge of the animals’ habits and symbolism, combining the two to tell stories that are happening in our surroundings.

I think of my paintings as “modern fables”. They are often inspired by my observation of the society and people. I like to use bright, cheerful images in my paintings to contrast with my darker tone. Reflecting on myself while creating these pieces, I hope to also give my audiences a chance to reflect on themselves when they look at my art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist to me is to hear from my audiences. I always like to know what others think and feel about my art, or even hear them share their personal stories with me.

A lot of my works are like fables, most of them are from my personal experiences or observations. I love to hear it when people tell me they had similar experiences, or are enlightened after knowing my art. I think as an artist, it is most happy when your art can connect with your audiences.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Creating isn’t easy for us creators either! Many non-creatives had asked me to draw or design something for free because “it is easy for you”. Well, it isn’t! We artists spend a lot of time and effort learning how to express ourselves through pens or brushes. Coming up with new ideas, developing a style, and improving our crafts; none of these are easy to do.

With the growth of AI art, I felt like creators are being less and less respected. Please understand that AI is generating works by calculating other creators’ art. I do think AI is a great tool, but it can not replace artists.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cjsunnyyen/