Today we’d like to introduce you to Morain An.
Hi Morain, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in a family no one had any experience with art except my grandma, who is a total housewife but has a huge passion for photography and art. What I remember from her is that she told me that she built a darkroom on the second floor of her house, and she always develops films after finishing her housework. And I got much encouragement from her as a kid. At that time, no one in my family believed that art was a big thing, and it seemed it had no future for making art. I started to learn drawing when I was in kindergarten, and till now. Throughout the journey of past experiences, I can feel how my mind has changed and how I look at art. And what does art means to me, and how could I use the power of art to change the world, even though just a little bit.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think rather than talk about if it is a smooth road, it is more about a challenging road to me. Honestly, I haven’t had a lot of memorable exterior struggles along the way, but there’s always some dissatisfaction with making art at inner me. My thoughts are constantly changing, and I am enjoying the change. I could critique and throw away my old ideas, so there will have something new coming to me. I don’t think I get the right way yet, but still floating and finding.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am working on a project about food called All About Food. There are always thousands of stories related to food: a table of food can connect the whole family, the food at a banquet can become an ornament in the gap between dignitaries from all over the world when they talk about state affairs, and it is also an indispensable catalyst in the affairs of men and women. At the same time, it is directly related to matters of life and death. Also, The same kind of food is endowed with different meanings under different cultural backgrounds. Different countries and ethnic groups can also recognize each other in the most sensory way through food. In short, food connects very different perceptions, cultures, and perceptions. It is an exaggeration to say that, from the perspective of food, it combines the friendship and identity of other human beings.
Most of my work is illustration and photography, or some visual images. The significant meaning of why I keep doing these is that we need to use visual language to tell stories and spread new knowledge. What I think is the most important thing about illustration is how well it is to communicate with people. No matter what kind of education people/views got, they can receive the message and information only from the pictures they saw. Writing sometimes requires people to take time and specialized knowledge to decode the symbols of language. So that’s why I always think illustration/visual images are very important for everyone, not only the thing to transmit information but also it could be read even though you did not get any high-education. Most of the time, visual images are a method to make complex things understandable. The extension of visualization will make an idea and content more intuitive, and it will make the number of transmissions and the range of acceptance will be larger and larger. And visual language is a language beyond countries, regions, and races.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The existence of Covid-19 is not only a challenge for a country, and it is more about a wake-up call for all of us about how to take a new look at ourselves. What I learn from the Covid-19 crisis is that I can see more sharply than before that everyone in the world only lives once, and we have to live more freely. Sometimes we are not in a rush for everything. All we have to do is slow down and ask ourselves what we truly want. The Covid-19 crisis undoubtedly made many things change. I was born and raised in China after moving to New York, and I visit my family from time to time. At the very beginning of Covid-19, I was in China to visit my family. I’ve been watching the collapse of many families and many unexpected ghastly things that happened to people through the daily news. Before 2020, we always thought it was not a big deal to walk around in the park without masks, having parents cooking for us was a simple thing, and it was easy to travel worldwide. We never know what will happen next, and all I should do is value what I had, even though they are unimpressive and small things. Nothing will be there forever, and they might disappear in a second.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://morain-ann.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morain.ann/
Image Credits:
Morain An
