Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuanyuan Zhou.
Hi Yuanyuan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
The story of me being an artist is full of the pleasant unexpected. Unlike most of the artist discovered their passion and love in their childhood, I always loved books, designs, packages, magazines, anything with pretty pictures on it, but I never thought I would be an illustrator one day and have the chance to make artwork like that. I had my undergraduate study in accounting and finance. I loved the calculation process and enjoyed solving problems. But after school and internships, I realized the accounting works in reality is not just about numbers and I was hesitated, I couldn’t picture myself working as an accountant for my future. Then I got an opportunity to work as a multiple language teacher in Turkey. So I took the chance to go to Turkey. The life there was relaxing and cozy, I did drawing photographing random people and views in my spare time. Slowly I started using illustration in my teaching process, helped the school preparing flash cards, school self-published textbooks and other teaching materials. One day my colleague said to me that my drawings so good I should be an illustrator. She made me realize that there is a profession as an illustrator. I googled and searched in that whole night, and that day changed my life. One year later, I applied to master’s degree in illustration in MICA and it changed my direction. I started my new chapter of life and took my step toward to be a professional illustrator. Now I am in my second year of my master’s degree and sharpening my skills. That’s my story of how I started to connect with the world of art and I am so glad I made it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It is not a smooth road for sure, and I believe if it’s something good awaits, most likely it won’t be a smooth path, and I am prepared to work my way to it. Before I made my decision to enter the grad-school I was mentally prepared that I might have difficulty to live in a completely new country and a new environment, I might have difficulty catching up because most of my classmates are mature artists with years of experience, I might have difficulty finding audiences and market to make my illustration live. For all of those difficulties, I am learning and practicing with guide and help from teachers and friends, I wouldn’t say I conquer them but they are not as intimidating as I imagined. I think it might be fun to talk about struggles that unthought-of. As a former accountant, I got trained with years to rely on logic and I am used to there is always a correct answer for things, and I can make a judgment with the answer I have. Entering in the art world made me realize intuition is my power, I never I thought I could spent so much time on training myself to trust my own intuition. And there is no right or wrong answer for a decision, most of the processes I had are trial- and error. I have to make it to see if it works for me. These are definitely new for me, it really broadens my way of thinking, adds dimensions of how I view the world, I don’t see the world the same way and I really enjoy that.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I first enter the world of illustration, there is too many different opportunities and I don’t know which field is my illustration can live in and what kind of work is for me. There has been a lot of trial and error goes with my work during my one year and half graduate study, I have learned a lot not only the techniques but also I have discovered myself and what I love to do. I started to shape my direction, build up my skills and concentrate on publication-related illustrations I love the process of conceptualizing. To make artwork perfectly suits the content is something I really enjoyed doing. I love observing and my works are mainly about people and their care, passion and love for daily life. Recently I have been contacted to create series of illustrations for the Radical Thinking section for The Guardian, I really appreciated this opportunity and feel very happy about my works being recognized and appreciated by public.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
In terms of risk taking, I would say for me it depends on if it’s a strategic move or it’s a life-changing decision to make (Sometimes it can be both in one!). If it is a decision about work or business, it is wise to calculate how much to put into financially and evaluate is the risk worth to take. If it is a decision involves life, personnel When I studied for my bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance, I had a class for risk management. It actually helped to establish my philosophy of risk taking. I see managing risk for a business is similar with managing risk for a life. For a business, you need to consider the risk appetite, meaning how much risk the company is willing to take to achieve its objectives and the risk tolerance, how much deviation the company could accept. In life, risk management will be how much risk you would like to take and how much you can afford to lose in order to take that risk. I see myself as a risk taker, I love life with new excitement, changes and challenges. So I always give myself a reminder and a check on my tolerance before I make a decision. And more importantly, I always compare it with my goal, to make sure the risk will actually do me good. If the risk is high but it matches what I want to achieve for my career, I am more willing to take it. If it’s something that looks very fun with some risk but does not match what I want to achieve, I may not to take it or play it safe.
Contact Info:
- Website: nimosart.com
- Instagram: @yuanyuanzhou_art
Image Credits
Art director: Rita Liu and Lauren Mechling
