Superstars Only

So I met you on your birthday, which is a pretty strange way to meet someone for the first time, but it was super cool. I remember watching you meticulously placing all the candles on your cake. It was super fascinating to watch because earlier I was staring at your cake painting that you had in your apartment beforehand then all of a sudden I see you treat your cake like a piece of art. It made me want to know more about your artwork. I see that you paint a lot of cakes. What do cakes mean to you?

That's a really good question. I guess I have really loved birthday parties since I was little. I would invite a set of friends to do these kinds of birthday parties ever since I was in kindergarten. I plan for my birthday parties—I would do a sketch of the layout stuff. It's a little bit like party planning, but it's not. It's actually kind of part of the art practice, because I feel like birthdays are an introspective process. It's not just a party for me. Like, I go through post party depression. It's all a routine and ritual. I'm into rituals a lot. I plan each birthday cake. Last year I had more of a Chinese bakery cake because that kind of speaks to Taiwan. And then I would collect candles just day to day. I love candle designs. I would bring candles from Taiwan which is where I would collect them. I brought all the candles I collected to New York, and then I just put it on the cakes. But this time, I just collected candles from Amazon and from weird party stores in New York. You know, there are a lot of stores that sell cheap stuff. Last year I bought a spinning singing candle. That was super funny. There's humor to these things. The candle couldn't stop singing, which was really funny. I guess I'm really interested in those little moments.

Do you ever feel attached to any candles that you don't want to light on fire because eventually they're gonna, you know, melt?

I had a candle that I bought from a city in Taiwan. That shop sells a lot of things and they had this candle with a smiley face on it and it was teardrop shaped. I didn't want to set it on fire, but eventually I did.

I remember specifically thinking that the candles you had on your birthday cake were really cute. You had these star candles and with little smiley faces on them that I really liked. The candles felt really curated and now that makes so much sense because back then I didn't know you collected them.

Yeah, I collected them. I've been through so much this whole year and I just wanted something with star things that shine positivity. So I got the star candles and put four on there for being 22 years old.

What made you start painting? Is painting your main thing?

I've been into painting more this year. I used to do graphic illustration in high school and I thought I was into that until I went to Parsons. Then I found out what I've always been doing is fine art. I do a lot of handmade stuff. So now I kind of decided to focus on fine art, but I still like to do graphic design and illustration on the side.

Your paintings bring a lot of joy. I wanted to know how you approach your use of color?

Yeah, a lot of people ask me about color. I guess it comes natural to me. I come from a culture where a lot of colors are involved. For instance in Taiwan, it's on the streets, in advertisements, on menus—I'm interested in those. A lot of pop colors are involved in Taiwanese culture. I was just inspired constantly by that. In Taiwan, I will go to textile shops and they will have tons of ribbons in a variety of textures and patterns. It's really manufactured. I'm interested in all the funky, simple, cheesy looking stuff. It's fun to look at. I guess I just had observational skills from when I was little.

I saw that you have another Instagram called menu objects. And that's kind of what you're talking about right? I really liked the page. It's full of those things that you just mentioned. I also saw that even one of your paintings says menu objects on it. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Yeah, it's kind of a new thing that I'm coming up with. It's just a side project, like the zine I told you about called the Thinking Tea. It was another kind of design brand that I was managing. For me, that concept was based on when my family used to take me to coffee shops and we would just sit there and draw in notebooks. My dad would draw in the notebooks and my mom would just sit there. I feel like that time where you're having a drink is a thinking space for yourself. And so then that turned into a lot of things. Like, "Oh, what's your tea time?" The tea time turned into a psychological time, like an interpretation of self time. I made a whole thing about it—spending time with yourself. But teatime was a little bit limited because it's more about the funky drinks and cakes and stuff.

It's all connected.

Yeah it's all connected and is reflecting the birthday aspect. I call my birthdays tea parties because everyone actually calls me by my nickname, T. T., which means tea sister in Chinese. But now I'm not necessarily doing the tea party thing anymore. I'm extending it into something more abstract in my Art. I'm extending it into menu objects. I'm into menus and then on the menus, it feels like a map. So, on the Instagram page that you were looking at, I log texture, color, and objects into the page. It's a new concept that I am doing.

Your work has so many little symbols. What kind of iconography do you always find yourself going back to when you are painting?

Recently stars and hearts. I look at a lot of advertisements and signs and I want to turn the iconography, patterns and colors into a system. That's actually what I've been researching recently—the iconography part. Because my teacher also asked that. Like, "Oh, why do you have these things?" I guess I just love collecting. It came from my practice of collecting objects. I collect confetti, candles, and I draw the confetti in different forms.

How many candles have you collected?

I have more confetti as of now because I don't have any candles. They were all used for my birthday.

Oh, cool. So your collection for the candles doesn't sit in one place. You build them up to use for your birthday and do that every year?

Yeah kind of, but I think I started realizing this ritual like two years ago.

Do you have any studio rituals?

Oh yeah, I think so. I journal and write diaries a lot, collect objects, and then I guess I record things. I record videos of people cutting birthday cakes on their birthday.

I also saw that you have some ribbons in your studio. What are some things that you like to make with those?

I got into textiles and sculptures. Actually, I've been doing a lot of sculptures for the past year. I was only ever in one painting class. I also got into weaving and I would put the objects in the weave. Like I collect it and do a weave. Although, I don't know if it has the same meaning as what I was talking about earlier, but it definitely has meaning to me. The ribbon is a big thing that has inspired my work this year. I would sew everything by hand.

You've talked about how you used to collect things in Taiwan and how you've continued to do that in NYC. Is there ever a difference or is there anything that you are missing or looking for when you do continue those rituals here?

Yeah, I thought about it a little bit before and I realized all the things I do trace back to finding home. Obviously, I'm not home so I urge myself to find ways that feel like home to me. Like, in my hometown, my mom would just take me to ribbon stores. We would just go there and buy random textiles. I also do that here as a way of feeling home.

Your stuff has a childlike wonder. Do you feel like you're playing again?

Yes. Of course. A lot of things feel like I'm going back to what I did in my childhood. I found a picture of myself when I was little wearing a pink dress. And then I found myself becoming closer and closer to where I was as a child, which was weird. I read a book and it said that art is the love of doing something. That inspired me so much because I started to notice what I love to do and then it just opened up what I could do in my art. Like, if art is the love of doing something, then I could play. I could collect ribbons. I could make ribbons. I could draw candles.

What do you think makes someone a superstar?

I think a superstar is someone that has a desire and strives for it, even if that desire is a dream.