An artist who creates beautiful artwork that is instantly engaging and pleasing to the eye, her paintings seem too precise and detailed to be done by hand. The beautiful work is more than that though; it is a juxtaposition of many symbols and cultures that seem to be at the same time in Harmony and direct Conflict with each other. Drawing from Chinese myth and traditional art, her work addresses many social and cultural tensions in modern society. Where are you from? I am from Hong Kong and I grew up on an island which has no cars. No Cars? Yeah (laughs) so I basically grew up on the beach… What was that like? The island‘s name means long island in Chinese and it has a population of about 10,000 when I was growing up but it is only 1 mile long. So it is pretty packed but to Hong Kong’s standards it is roomy. Did you go to the city a lot when you were growing up? No, I didn’t. In fact, when I was a kid I used to get carsick going to the city so I had to carry a plastic bag with me in case I threw up. (laughs) (Laughs)When did you move off the island? I went to elementary school and junior high on the island; when I was in 9th grade is when I started going to school in the city. How was the adjustment? By then I was a teenager so I was very excited to be going into the city and seeing new things. What do your parents do? My parents are kind of Chinese hippies. When I was a kid my dad was a lifeguard and my mom was an artist. They ended up starting a wind surfing center. My dad was and still is a windsurfing coach. In fact he is kind of famous because my cousin won the Olympic gold medal in 97’ in Atlanta; he is the gold medalist’s coach.
So no wind surfing for you? No, I am like the only non-athletic person in the family. Growing up did they give you a lot of freedom? Chinese parents always work so you are kind of on your own most of the time. Growing up on the island, everyone knows each other and we had a lot of freedom. What brought you to America? It’s one of those things, when you grow up you want to travel the world and see other things. I guess America struck me because my godmother is American and when I was growing up she influenced me culturally. Do you feel like this is your home now or is Hong Kong still your home? Half and half. It’s really tough. I miss Hong Kong a lot but I love living here. I can’t really be 100% each thing. I keep going back and forth. What’s the biggest difference between here and there? I think if I didn’t come here I wouldn’t have become an artist. Here it’s just so free in terms of what you want to do with your life and there is so much space. In Hong Kong there is a lot of pressure and you have to fit in and conform. Materialistic things are important. You have to get a job and make a lot of money. You don’t have room for life. Here you can take your time slowly and figure out what you want to do. When did you start painting? I went to school for graphic design and school is very fun and you can be very creative. I started painting after I finished school because I felt like I was missing a creative outlet.
Even with graphic design? Yeah because it turned into a job and it wasn’t fun anymore. As a designer you are paid to be your most creative, how does that effect you in the long run? It’s kind of sad but these days very few graphic designers get paid to be creative. I think the graphic designer’s role changed in the past ten years because everyone can now become a graphic designer. Whereas back then you really had to have very specific skills. Now, people don’t appreciate graphic design that much and people who do graphic design become a tool for marketing people. That’s part of the reason I switched to painting. Your work is very bold and crisp and it is very surprising that it is paint and not made on a computer. Do you think being a designer has influenced your artwork? Yes, I think it’s influenced my use of color and the graphic component of my work. I was living in the bay area for twelve years and the whole bay area has a very distinct style, very graphic and that has influenced my style as well. I started painting for self therapeutic purposes… (laughs)
What do you mean self therapeutic? It’s always been a battle since I was a kid because I grew up in a British colony. So there was always the clash between western and eastern ideas. Growing up you don’t really understand it and you just accept them as face value but here people are more progressive; people like to talk about race issues, class issues and they analyze everything. So it helps me to understand why things are the way they are. The early artwork I had came from the questions I had and I tried to create work that helped me understand it better. Do you start with an idea or a feeling and go from there? My process is more idea based. Whenever I do a painting I research first. Whether it is the imagery I want to find or the idea I want to paint about; then I do the sketches and paint.
Your work has a lot of juxtaposition in it. Especially involving traditional characters and symbols; is that part of your intention? Being Chinese I always appreciated Chinese art so that’s the style I am very attracted to. The subject matter is contemporary and I think that is where the clash comes in. The panda being one example. It is very prominent in your paintings but that is a very Chinese symbol. Why did you choose the panda? There is a lot of symbolism in my work. Panda is the symbol of China but at the same time it is an endangered species and the reason why it is endangered is the environment. It has been hunted, it has been killed and they don’t reproduce very quickly. So on one hand it is supposed to represent china but on the other hand people are doing all these things to make this animal endangered. The women are so beautiful in your work but there is something else beneath the surface there… A lot of the work has to do with mythology and things I grew up with. So there is this character that is supposed to be really beautiful like that one there (points to the painting below) and she is a fox lady and has a tail. She is actually a demon that is a fox. In Chinese culture we call someone a fox lady if they steal someone’s husband. (Laughs) So she is kind of the representation of the evil and also the acceptance of the west. Every year they have a new trend in China and right now the big trend is wearing color contact lenses that make your eyes bigger and you don’t even look like the same person. Stuff like that becomes such a trend in a society but people don’t question why we are doing this. Why is it a standard of beauty to have bigger eyes? Or whiter skin?
Without questioning it they just follow it. So that to me is kind this fox lady in the society. By accepting and not questioning, you are deleting the past. Sooner or later you will end up with no identity. Do you think coming to America and looking back at China you are able to see things differently? I listen to the radio all day and I read the news and stuff. When there is an interesting story I do more research. Things like the contact lenses I didn’t know about and then I become obsessed with it. The internet is great because you can get all sorts of information.
How do people respond to your work in China? I think generally it is very positive because it is inviting. It’s funny because before I moved here my studio was in Chinatown and my neighbor was an older Chinese lady from Taiwan who loved bringing me all sorts of food and visited. Besides the fox lady there is another character called The Protector and she represents the old tradition. My body of work is at war and doing this kung fu fighting (laughs). The Protector actually wears a mask as a disguise and the mask is very demon like. This lady asked “why is this one like this? It’s too scary… I don’t like it” (laughs) Overall they like it. In china when they see the work, Chinese women get it right away. They love it and they feel touched. Men not so much (laughs)
Why is that? Maybe it is a different sensibility. Women know what I am trying to do. The symbols and beauty mixed together and I think it touches them personally. Even though they can’t articulate why. When you don’t paint what do you do? I work. I try to keep a pretty busy schedule. I am like a routine person. I try to keep a balance, half the time painting and half the time working.
And you still design? Yes, I do. My business partner has a computer science background. In 2002 when the dot-com crashed we took the time off and did whatever we wanted to do. I started focusing more on my art and he went back to school at UCLA for design and media. In 2005 we got back together and actually found out how to run a business and be very creative and not have to compromise so much.
How did you find that balance? We started the company in 98’ when we were 22 or 23. We got really lucky because it was during the dot-com boom. At the time there were not a lot of interesting visual websites. There were not many that looked at the web as a new medium instead of a money making thing. We decided to start a company. We each chipped in $5,000 each that he saved up and I saved up. We bought equipment and rented an office for $500 a month in south park San Francisco. We started taking projects and slowly got all this work. In two years our company was ten people and we had to manage all these people. It wasn’t fun. We hated it. It was the worst time of my life! You weren’t doing what you wanted? We weren’t doing what we wanted. We started taking projects just because we had a payroll. We had to be constantly working just to keep the machine running. We weren’t even paying ourselves that much money. Our ultimate goal was not money, it was creating interesting work. Being so young we didn’t know how to get there so we followed the path of many entrepreneurs but we just winged it. It didn’t work. The dot-com crash was the best thing because it made us think about why we were doing it. It is very hard to find a business partner you can count on and you have the same vision. We have known each other for over ten years and at this point it’s almost like we are brothers and sisters.
Is your life as a painter different now? When I started painting I did it for fun. I didn’t make it my career or try to show or sell. When I started showing and selling I thought it was kind of cool. Beginner’s luck… As I started doing it seriously I realized that I had to spend more time on it. It wasn’t just a hobby anymore. It was a career too. Since 2005 I realized this is what I really want to do. It’s hard to be an artist because you don’t make much money. You sell your artwork but it barely pays the bills. I have the luxury that I have the income from my other job. At the same I think it took the rough times to make me learn that in order for my own happiness I have to paint, no matter what it takes. Is it an itch that you have to create art? You get anxiety… When I don’t come to the studio for more than a week my boyfriend is like “please go to the studio, you are driving me nuts! I get anxious, very angry, and my brain starts going. I can’t sleep at night…
Stella's work can be seen here.
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