Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Yang.
Angela, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in South Florida. My mother was Puerto Rican, and my father was Taiwanese. They met while working at a hospital in New York City. I have one older sister and one older brother. I like to think that I was a creative child, and I am sure that I was always a very self-aware one.
For a long time, it was difficult for me to express my thoughts and feelings vocally in an effective way so I would use art to speak and express myself. The very first art form I fell in love with and formally trained in was dance. I started teaching myself how to draw by trying to copy the images in art history books when I was little. I was drawing and painting every moment I could. Later on, I was able to take art classes in school and get my BA in studio art, along with a degree in psychology and English.
Eventually, I was able to go to graduate school and get my MFA in visual arts from FIU. I taught art and art history to primary and secondary school students and with an MFA I was finally able to also teach at the college level. In the middle of the pandemic, I started working for an international art supply company running their consumer testing division.
On the side, I have been reinvesting time into my art practice and experimenting more outside of my usual mediums. I’ve also been co-curating art exhibitions in Fort Lauderdale, and I’m quite excited about curating my first exhibition independently in 2024 for the show titled, “Neither Here Nor There.”
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would say I’ve had a fairly smooth road with a few ups and downs. The pandemic was a struggle for me. My mother passed away and I had to deal with several other losses and changes. I’m still grieving her and slowly learning to accept her absence.
Sometimes I have let dark times get the better of me and not pursued certain dreams or have taken huge gaps in expressing myself creatively and making work. Sometimes I have struggled with my sense of purpose and my identity as an artist and as a person in general. I think getting older and in theory wiser has helped me to be more honest with myself and others.
I like to think that any struggles I have had have given me an opportunity to become a stronger and more empathetic person. I have a better appreciation for the people I love and what we can all do with the time we have here.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
At this point, I would consider myself to be a mixed-media artist. I started primarily as a painter, but I later moved into other mediums such as collage, assemblage, and installation art. I love to experiment and challenge myself. The themes of my work usually focus on psychology, spirituality and religion, altered realities, and the feminine.
I’ve noticed that I tend to switch media depending on the theme. The more recent installations I’ve been making have a more spiritual and dark esoteric quality to them, but the paintings I have completed in my head are brightly colored and related more toward love and landscapes. My dreams and the topics I study heavily influence my work. I am proudest of the oil paintings I have done of my friends and family, my sculptures dealing with female sexuality, and a few of my installations. I am especially proud of the art exhibitions I have had a hand in curating. I love helping other artists share their work, especially the newer, more shy ones that remind me of myself when I was younger. So many people have amazing talents that should be nurtured.
I’d like to say that I’m known for my paintings but in all honestly, it’s probably more for the two very sexual sculptures I made several years ago. And to anyone who loved those pieces, you’ll be happy to know that I am resuming work on that particular series. I think the fact that I like to switch mediums and not create works that always look the same might set me apart to a certain degree. Every artist is different in their approach and what they need to accomplish with their work.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think teachers make great mentors so it will benefit a person to take advantage of all their knowledge and advice when you have them in class and try to establish a relationship with them. It’s also a great idea to frequent art and cultural events in your community.
You never know who you will meet or how they might affect your future. Join mentorship programs, art groups, and art collectives that are working on things you would like to be a part of. Seek out people who inspire you or who are doing what you would like to be doing and ask them questions about the steps they took to get them to where they are now. Be friendly, be curious, be genuine, be yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blindaviator.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angela_yang_art
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBellSonnet
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-yang-895346211/?trk=contact-info
