I was born and raised in China. I came to America to study as a teenager. I had a weird experience growing up. There were a lot of things that influenced me. I was in this suburb environment being extremely influenced by hip hop. That was the type of music that gave me my confidence when I needed it. I did spend a lot of time scrolling on YouTube and Instagram and that's kind of how I learned English. I was obsessed with all the vaporware, dream core, and lo-fi stuff growing up.
I started drawing once depression started to become something that I deal with on a more regular basis. Later on, I decided that I was going to study illustration because I made mostly figurative work, not paintings. While in SVA I became interested in the hippie culture and I started listening to Pink Floyd and The Beach Boys. Therefore my influence is very very mixed. A lot of religious art, a lot of hip hop, a lot of 70s psychedelic art, and definitely a lot of emo. Really it is a mix of everything that interested me growing up as a child. Right now it is kind of like post-graduation for me and I’m just focusing on my sanity and career. I mean I’ve always dealt with a lot of mental things growing up. Most importantly I’ve been dealing with certain weird feelings before I could even put my finger on it.
Later on, I came to the US to study, and doing it at a rather young age definitely could make things worse. However, I’m not blaming it on anything or anyone. I try to take the mindset of things being just the way they are, and I learn from it. By the way that’s probably why I was so drawn into certain rap music growing up as a more subgenera kid. I was really into that 2016,2017 SoundCloud rap era. Like all that you would put under the umbrella of emo rap music. Like TeamSesh, Dylan Ross, and Lil Peep. All that kind of music. It helped me deal with what I had to deal with at the time, and that’s just what it was for me.Â
I do traditional drawings and paintings that are rendered by hand. They have a very trippy palette, and my images are all rendered with love and warmth. I am very inspired by a lot of 60s and 70s psychedelic art. I am heavily influenced by artists like Alex Grey and Thomas Woodruff. I love what they have been doing. I would like to consider my art iridescent and lush. I do tend to throw a lot in there. I don’t tend to go down that minimal path when it comes to my art. I like it when things are a bit extra and out there. All my artwork is done with color pencils and watercolors. I’ve experimented with other mediums before, but these are my go-to mediums for now. In a world that is so saturated by digital and AI art. I’m someone who is more interested in the tradition of making pictures. I love looking at a lot of older art like Caravaggio and Albrecht Durer. The world has forgotten about the tradition of making pictures as the digital world arises. For me personally, I would like to stick to what I do and keep doing it.
My IG is: @emokiddodraws and my email is: steventian65@gmail.com.