We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yi Cheng a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of revenue or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.

In the past year, I have donated to different organizations such as the Pasadena Humane Society, dog rescues, the South Pasadena Police Station, Hamilton Elementary School, sea turtle protection, and other nonprofit organizations. Through art donations, I have had the opportunity to learn more about many people and animals in need, and I feel a strong urge to contribute to them. It brings me great joy to see that my art raises awareness among people.

Yi, 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?

I started drawing before I could even walk. At the time, I didn’t have access to any painting materials, but I did have access to my mother’s lipsticks, which I used as paint, and her closet doors –my very first canvas!  I remember being interested in coloring the most unreachable places, sometimes climbing the drawers in the closet to reach even higher. Surprisingly, my mother never stopped me; in fact, she encouraged me and became my first supporter.

I always loved observing things. In kindergarten, when all the other kids were playing typical children’s games, I would constantly be in the school garden. I looked at the way the sun’s rays left beautiful shadows on the plants, chairs, tables, and swings. I stared at those shadows on the ground, on the beautiful grass for a long time. Feeling the breeze on my skin as I watched the blades of grass and the leaves on the trees dance. I thought about how pretty and peaceful it was. And then I thought that I wanted to draw and paint that moment, so I could remember it forever.

People never believe me now when I tell them that I was extremely shy growing up. I spent a lot of time alone, not talking to anyone, not even my family. It felt exhausting to talk and I found it difficult to communicate with people. I never minded being alone; I loved spending my time just constantly drawing. I could have been happy doing only that, forgoing food and water until I was exhausted. In fact I did do that multiple times and that worried my parents.

My mom dealt with her worries over my health by encouraging me to try sports. She found me a Tae Kwan Do and a basketball coach and my father was tasked with teaching me how to swim in an effort to get me to engage more. Sports taught me how to work with others, and to be a team player. That is definitely something I had to get used to, and it really helped me later down the road on my art journey.

I attended Shanghai Theater Academy, which is renowned for being the best art school in China. However, after studying for a year I became obsessed with making movies. I wasn’t sure why I was into movies so much at the time; it was much later that I started to realize how movies are also a form of art that requires collaboration, just like a sports team. I was finally coming out of my shell; unlike the old me who wanted to do art alone, I now actually wanted to work with people.

By making films at school, I was thrust into a social world and forced to learn how to speak to others. I was the first assistant director on two feature films in Beijing, a position that required a lot of communication and teamwork. I found it challenging, yet extremely rewarding.

Soon, new doors began opening for me. Every time I spoke to a new person, I learned new things. It completely changed how I approached my art, and how I expressed it.
I received my very first commission in 2010; it was a large wall for the Shanghai 2010 Expo. The concept was about peace and love. Following that, I did about 20 stage designs for theater shows working with theater students in school such as “Sweeney Todd”, “Lion King”, and “Cats”.

During this time, I did a lot of oil and acrylic painting for portraits and landscapes.
In 2013 I made the big, somewhat scary, decision to leave my home country for the chance to explore new ideas and opportunities. Soon I was aboard the 18-hour flight to Manhattan, NY to study cinematography. After I graduated, I mainly worked as a director and director of photography for film productions.

I moved to LA in 2016 and had the honor of working on bigger productions for Warner Brothers, Disney, and HBO. The current one I am working called “The Sympathizer” with Robert Downy Jr. It was truly a life-changing experience that taught me so many lessons. And I had the chance to meet so many amazing people as well. For more info: www.imdb.me/yi

Currently, I continue to do art, focusing on Ink Pen, pencil drawings, and watercolor.

What inspires me to make art is simple. I love doing it. When I’m making art, I feel very at peace. I am not a fan of chaos. I love the idea that I can draw anything, paint anything. There are millions of ways to make art and I hope to keep exploring and learning. There are always new tools, mediums, and ideas to discover!
Thank you for showing interest in my work.

The amazing thing about doing art is that I can connect with people in the digital world while also being able to hand-deliver my art and meet the customer in person. It is extremely exciting to meet amazing dogs and cats or even a whole family after knowing the story behind them through the art-making process.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After I graduate, I decided to go to New York to learn filmmaking so I can experience a different way to tell stories. Like other filmmakers, my dream was to get into the movie industry – get into Hollywood.

During this time I have started in different schools such as NYFA, USC, and UCLA. I have worked for hundreds of film productions and won over 30 awards from film festivals. The best production companies such as Warner Brothers, Disney, and HBO. More movie information about me is on IMDB: www.imdb.me/yi

Unfortunately, Covid hits and nobody was filming so I stayed home and started thinking about doing art again so I can make some money to pay my rent. I started posting my art on a social media site called Nextdoor and it changed my life since then.  In the last year of 2022, I have done hundreds of art for neighbors and friends for their pets and family and have built so many amazing connections with people.

It is amazing that people talk with me through digital media and in the end, I get to deliver physical art to people. By doing the art I get to know more about their fur babies and share with them the joy that they have/had. Some of the pets and family passed away and I was able to do the art and brought some comfort to them.

I started doing more art for animal shelters, donated some art to them, and I started learning more that there are so many fur babies waiting to be adopted, otherwise they are going to be killed. The more I learn about it the more I start thinking I want to do more to help instead of just using my pencil on the paper. I know how much animals help us. My mom has been suffering from depression for a long time, it gets worse during covid. Especially her best friend who also treated me as her child since I was born that killed herself during covid not too long ago. My mom has been battling a lot with mental health. I got my mom a dog named Simba, and she has been helping my mom so much to get through. These are the photos of Simba and some art I did more of her. One of the art pieces I did for my mom that she was dancing with Simba reached and touched so many people.

I started thinking why not open a nonprofit company that can connect people and animals. Saving animals from being killed and helping people especially those with disabled and mental health issues.

Fortunately I have been receiving a lot of help from friends and neighbors. I registered my company on 12.30.2022, the name is called “Able Family”

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

It’s not an easy path at all. Especially when I start thinking about how I can tell my story either through art or film. Mostly I was trying to find a direction. A direction where I know I can express myself better.

I went to New York in 2013 after- graduating from a university in Shanghai with majoring in stage design- in hopes that I could learn film in America and tell a story through different media. At that time I was really struggling with the English language, so I decided to go to language school. I remember I took a level 1 English class and I was taught simple phrases like, “how are you ” and “I am good”. At that time, I kept wondering how long it would take me to communicate well with English speakers. After studying in a language school for six months, I decided to try enrolling in film school. It was challenging especially with English not being my native language, but I managed to graduate. During school, my Chinese classmates and friends from China kept asking me when I was going to move back to China. They would simply say, “You are Chinese, you are Asian. Do you expect to get into the film industry? Make it into Hollywood? You also don’t know American culture.” Being friends, I didn’t argue, but I knew that if I never tried, nothing would happen.

While in school and after graduating from school. I continued making many short films and hoped I could one day achieve my Hollywood dream. I admit it was hard. Especially when you have so many voices against you.

Although I have directed and produced almost 30 short films and won over 30 awards from film festivals, somehow I still couldn’t see myself moving any closer to my dream, or what I thought was my dream.

Through the schools I attended: NYFA, USC, and UCLA, I have learned so much from so many incredible teachers, but I know that I still need to find what I want and what I want to express. Before truly knowing what I wanted, I was only putting my focus on wanting to get into the film industry, to get well known, to get paid well, wanting to be a “good” artist. Until finally I realized none of that was the dream I wanted to follow.

I started questioning myself, maybe this isn’t a place I want to stay. Maybe I really should go back to “where I belong”, it would be easier. However, my parents kept encouraging me to never give up on my dream. I explained how I was constantly reminded that the film industry is mainly dominated by white men, you don’t even see white women, but maybe you see one Asian man there. “Then why not be that one Asian man then?” They supported me so much and I feel so very lucky to have them.

Fortunately in 2019, after six hard years of studying and working in America. I finally got my first big break- a job working for a Warner Brothers feature film “Birds of Prey”. It was definitely a dream come true for me. All the hard work paid off. Afterward, I managed to get a position for Disney’s Marvel Studio film “Shang-chi” and later an HBO upcoming TV series with Robert Downey Jr.

Since getting the dream job -the one that a million filmmakers want to get into- I began wondering if this is what I really wanted for my future. If this is really how I want to tell my story.

While I was filming with HBO for their new TV show “The Sympathizer” with Robert Downey Jr. the challenge for me was that I regularly had to film for 13 hours per day, which left barely enough time to do art. Some days I would wake up around 1 am, be on set at 2 am, finish working around 3 pm, then finally drag my feet through my door around 4 pm. It wasn’t the kind of schedule I could see myself sticking with as a career.

For the art commissions that I have been doing, I found that it is extremely hard to find people who appreciate, support, and fully understand my art. As a freelance artist, I constantly worry that I won’t find new commissions; it definitely isn’t stable, but it’s what I love.

I have met clients that don’t understand how much time and effort artists put into their work. For example, sometimes people ask me to create art with very specific requirements, but don’t really care how long it takes me to finish the piece. When I break down the cost of materials and what they have agreed to pay, I realized I’m barely making 3 dollars per hour.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yiartgallery.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/yidreams
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@yiartgallery
• Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/yiartgallery/explore?asc=u&page=1&sortOrder=recent