Making Art Work
Alice Yang makes art to make a living and to create joy for herself and others.
Alice is creating her own path. After Alice was born in Torrance, California, her family moved to San Diego, then farther away: Alice spent her formative years in Shanghai, China, before returning to the states and attending college in Philadelphia. Now based in San Francisco, she credits her flexibility in life and work with this early flexibility of place.
“Transitioning to independent illustration work, not knowing where your next project is coming from—there is a sense of unknown, a sense of anticipation—of finding out what life has for you. That’s exciting.”
After earning a computer science degree and working as a video game software engineer, Alice found the work and the challenging dynamics of corporate teamwork unenjoyable. She returned to school to finish out her masters in computer science, then worked as a product designer because, “that was one step closer to something visual.” After a few years, product design was no longer satisfying either. So Alice started from scratch.
“I’m completely self-taught in illustration. I took courses, found mentors, and rebuilt my career. I’m proud that I was able to walk away from however far I was on a particular wire and start over again because that’s what I needed to do to get where I wanted to go.”
Alice’s first successful art venture enabled her next move. She created a series of digital collectibles (aka NFTs) and sold them, which allowed her to leave her job and move into full-time freelance illustration.
“On a personal level, illustration is a language for things unsaid. My mission is to capture the narratives that escape words.”
Creating new patterns
During Alice’s early career, one narrative that had escaped words yet shaped her actions was her family’s influence.
“Over the past couple of years I’ve been working through fears or insecurities that I feel have been holding me back as a creative in some ways, for example, going to school for tech and not necessarily having a formal art background.”
Like so many artists who experience imposter syndrome alongside a host of other insecurities, Alice is doing the hardest work relative to overcoming these thought patterns: Discovering the source.
“In some ways I’ve realized my own fears and limiting beliefs are passed down from my parents’ lived experiences as Chinese immigrants. They came here with nothing in their pockets, so their way of living is survival based. Stability is their north star. That was instilled in me, mainly subconsciously, so I’ve been working through that. I’ve realized that when I’m scared, maybe I’m not scared, maybe it’s just that embedded pre-programming—much like when you buy a laptop with built-in software you don’t want or need, so you uninstall it. Trying to uninstall that ‘software’ has been a process.”
As fresh software, Alice practices art in a very concrete way.
“When we move beyond feeling small or limited, we’re responsible for trying new things, putting ourselves out there. It’s imperative. The more you put yourself out there, the more likely something will land. It’s a numbers game. Some of the most successful people I admire lean into discipline, focusing less on whether something will be a masterpiece and what the art is, extrinsically, and focusing more on ‘How can I create three new things every week, regardless of the quality.’ Practically speaking, this distills down into changing the goals I set for myself.”
Curious how she balances her client work with personal creative goals, we asked Alice to walk us through an ideal day.
Every morning she takes a walk, followed by journaling and sketching. She works on client projects in her studio. With progress made, she transitions into drawing for herself, sometimes designing merchandise to sell on her website or at local markets. She makes lunch, then visits with a group of creative friends in the afternoon, where everyone talks about what they’re working on. “We exchange ideas and advice—there’s just an energy that’s so easy to feed off of, when bouncing between a lot of people who are happy with what they’re doing.”
People inspire Alice, so it’s no surprise they’re part of her daily practice.
“I’m driven by being able to work with people—by understanding how they see the world, what they find beautiful. I love being able to draw from that and create something they feel seen in.”
Wisdom on independence
For Alice, layers of creative influence in the corporate environment just weren’t working.
“I like making my own mistakes. And even if I have to pay for them pretty dearly, they are my mistakes, and I get to learn from them.”
As an interpreter of sorts, responsible for translating her clients’ visions into clear visual solutions, Alice found that bending her interpretations to meet other art and creative directors’ opinions felt counterintuitive, at best. Over time, degrading.
“I bet on myself because after hiring other artists and illustrators, I realized that the qualities I look for in a good employee, I had myself, and yet I worked for other people. Why couldn’t I just work for myself? That’s how the idea came about. I wanted to give myself a chance to do what I want without having to follow other people’s directions.”
Creating connection is part of creating art. For Alice, connection fuels both opportunity and personal satisfaction.
“Building a connection with people—even if it’s redesigning their research paper so it looks really nice—that gives me the same joy as making and selling beautiful art. Understanding this and being flexible has allowed life to give me unexpected opportunities, and has allowed me to say yes, and be led to places I didn’t realize I could enjoy.”
To others, especially artists considering independent work and specifically anyone in her former position of struggling to thrive in a creative team, Alice offers a note of consideration.
“For anyone feeling like they want to go independent I suggest digging deeper to sift through how much of your feelings are related to not wanting to collaborate with others when you’re feeling down, for example, versus having a specific vision, a thing within you that you want to bring to the world and need the time and space to do that. Often it’s the combination of both. For me, the reaction of being in a corporate structure took precedence.”
Importantly, it is also good to realize that breaking free from a structured team does not mean leaving others’ influence or opinions entirely behind.
“Working for myself has been an eye-opening and humbling experience, forcing me to examine the motivations of my actions. I didn’t like to make myself softer, or put up a front to get things done, for example. I attributed those challenges to the environment and thought this wouldn’t happen working for myself. But everybody who makes this shift realizes that when you work for yourself, you still work with other people. Those challenges still exist. It’s still on you to grow or evolve as life demands.”
Alongside the humbling realities of independent work, Alice also enjoys the dreamier bits like more capacity to explore new interests.
“One great thing about working for yourself is the ability to try new things, be wild and see where it takes you. I recently signed up for a voice lesson. I’m thinking about joining a public speaking club. It’s nice to break out of the mold you set for yourself. That’s what I’ve been doing in my free time, poking holes and seeing which parts have room to grow.”
We asked Alice what her dream client or project looks like. Her answer is inspiring and, best of all, now feels closer to reality than a dream.
“I would love to collaborate with Gucci to design a scarf or accessories. The intersection of fashion and art has felt a little like, oh, [fashion is] the popular girl at the lunch table, versus me, the quiet nerd sipping a juice box in the back. Although it feels so cool and out of reach, I’ve always loved fashion. And it feels closer now, now that I have more freedom and time and space to explore.”
Spoken like a true artist: Using unexpected metaphors.
With that, a final note of advice—an equally unexpected summary of what is, at least in part, the source of Alice’s confidence when it comes to making art and approaching her dreams.
“Consistent output will always outpace strokes of genius at uncertain times in uncertain intervals. By committing ourselves to be disciplined, it opens more doors for life to come in.”
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