Today we’d like to introduce you to Cecilia Chi.
Cecilia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
During preschool, my teacher nagged me to play, so I picked up a red marker and drew. I still remember feeling my loneliness fading away despite being alone and feeling safe for the first time. Since then, art has been the most stable force in my life. From past traumas, I felt like I was losing myself and my voice to the point I became mute out of fear. Art became a vessel for self-expression and therapy. It pushed me to move and start my undergrad journey at the University of Massachusetts – Lowell so that I could finally leave my pains behind in Ohio. Before COVID, I got my voice back and made meaningful connections with the faculty and my peers. However, when the pandemic hit, my traumas came back and hit harder. I was institutionalized, forced to drop out of school, and move back to my family in Columbus. I experienced hate and discrimination more frequently, which grew my self-hatred for being Asian. Thanks to the people around me sending love and support, I continued art at Ohio State University. For the past two years, my voice and confidence have been slowly growing back. I allow my art to assert my joy, sadness, and rage. I still have lots of growth to be done, but I’m happier with myself and my art.
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?
Absolutely not. Healing isn’t linear. During the moments when I relapse into a dark mental state, I struggle with self-hate and fail to see what good I have done for myself and my art practice. However, I’m learning to be more gentle with myself. Also, being a woman of color, I struggle with not being heard in the institutions where I study and work. There will be people who don’t want me to succeed just because I’m not the norm. I have spite, and that motivates me more to fight for myself.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a studio art major specializing in drawing and painting; however, I prefer to avoid using labels like “drawer” or “painter” because I change mediums depending on what story I want to share. Currently, I make collages made of materials coming from various sources. I might include my own drawings/paintings, screenshots from social media and messaging apps, magazine clippings, Chinese calligraphy, chains, fake flowers, yarn, or whatever is around me. I’m most proud of my two projects, 他摸了我, and Emotional Yellow. 他摸了我 is a bigger-than-life-size collage about being touched by an adult man in a cult when I was a kid. I was so proud of the sheer size of the piece. I learned how to do animation for the project and incorporated my interest in Chinese calligraphy and the poem from my favorite Chinese painting Zheng Sixiao’s “Ink Orchid.” Emotional Yellow is a series of paintings and collages showing my anger and pain as an Asian-American woman. I’m happy that I was unapologetic about how aggressive my emotions were and about being Asian.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I use my notes app often to note down any artist recommendations to check later or advice I receive for further research. Also, in the notes app, I make to-do lists to keep myself on track. To keep track of my art, images, and files, I make folders in Onedrive sorted by first semester, then medium or class. For mood boarding and writing, I use a burner Instagram account or Tumblr.
Contact Info:
- Website: cecexc.com
- Instagram: _cecexc_
