Today we’d like to introduce you to Aileen Liu.
Hi Aileen, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
“Life has many doors, Ed-boy.” – Rolf from the iconic cartoon series “Ed, Edd n Eddy.”
Growing up, when my parents would introduce my two siblings and I, they would say, “This is our firstborn, this our baby, and this is Aileen–the funny one.” As an Asian American child of immigrants, growing up in the south was a very colorful experience. I’m sure by now, we’ve all heard stories about tiger parents and high expectations, and I would say that applied to my life as well. So, to not meet those expectations and feeling like a complete loser most of time, sometimes all you can do is laugh. And draw. And write stories. So that’s what I’ve always gravitated towards doing instead of becoming a doctor or engineer.
I’m a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, with a bachelor’s degree in animation. But what surprises a lot of people is that I’m 31 years old and that it’s taken me 14 years to finish my degree. After graduating high school in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and trying and failing at the local university, I moved to Seattle, Washington to go to school at a very niche game design college called DigiPen Institute of Technology. That also didn’t work out, but I ended up staying in Washington for nine years, working odd jobs and trying so hard to make my life work out. A lot of tears and heartbreak happened there, but I’m grateful for all of the growing pains.
When the pandemic hit, I was still out slinging coffee to the masses (because I was considered an “essential worker”), and that time of overwhelming stress and bizarre isolation really put a lot of things into perspective for me. Life really is too short to not try and be happy. That was when I decided to follow my 17 year-old self’s dream of going to SCAD and pursuing animation. It was sad to say goodbye to the west coast air, but honestly I was excited to be back in the hot, sweaty embrace of the Georgia sun.
My experience at SCAD Atlanta has been so invaluable. And frankly, I don’t think I would have appreciated and learned as much as I did had I gone straight out of high school. I think having time to cook a little longer and experience other kinds of lives allowed me to fully embrace just how wonderful learning could be. It also made me realize that no matter how much I tried doing other things, like learning coding and using Excel sheets, I would always go back to storytelling with art. I think my purpose is to share stories in beautiful and interesting ways, and ultimately share joy with the world. So here we are now, fresh diploma arriving in the post soon, resting from a chaotic senior year, and enjoying the little things while setting life’s next goals.
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’s definitely been a bumpy road for sure. I think biggest challenge was and still is fighting off my inner saboteur–that negative voice that tells me I’m never gonna be good enough for anyone or anything. I’m very grateful for therapy (shoutout to you, Allison) and learning to deal with the cacophony inside my head takes constant work, but sometimes a lovely symphony can come out of it. It’s so hard to be kind to yourself, but at the end of the day, you’re all you have, so please try to love yourself.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Frankly, I’m just a girl that has a lot of big feelings, and I want to be honest and authentic in everything I create. But ultimately, I like to think of myself as a visual storyteller. Whether it be through a comic or animation or illustration or short film, I want to share some kind of experience and make my audience feel something. I’m also very proud of my heritage–I’m Lao and Hakka Chinese, born and raised here in the American south, so I try to put those influences into my work. Currently, I’m working on an independent animated short film I started back at SCAD about queerness, grief, and love. It’s a lot of work and I don’t know when I’ll finish it, but I’m taking my time to share this story the way I believe it deserves to be told.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Honestly, I don’t think I’m a very big risk taker anymore, I don’t like to gamble. I don’t even play gacha or claw machine games!
But I guess you could say that being a visual artist, you’re taking a risk every time you put yourself out there and post something online. Maybe I should be less afraid to go for it, you miss every shot you don’t take, right?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aileenliu.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milkbabbit
- Other: https://milkbabbit.gumroad.com/
Image Credits
All images © Aileen Meiling Liu
