We were lucky to catch up with Hejiajia Qin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hejiajia, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
It’s a gift, mostly. But I would say I developed my resilience overtime. I went through some depression episodes years ago, and when I recovered the greatest thing I learned is to think less. Usually when something tough happened in my life, I get over it in a day. I would just go to bed and think tomorrow is a better day. Another thing I always tell myself is that I’m still young. The mistakes I made now may seem ridiculous in ten years, maybe even two years. It’s like when I was little, I thought that not doing my homework in school is such a big deal, like the world is going to end. But now I see it and it’s nothing. Besides I always get something out of my mistakes and tough times, so positively speaking it’s good that I’m still making mistakes, it helps me grow.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m an illustrator who likes to work with many different mediums, for example, watercolor, mixed media, digital, zines and animation. My works often focus on aspects of anthropology and sociology. I tend to explore the complexity in human relationships in relation to the world. I like nostalgic things and disasters, whether it’s personal disasters or a bigger disaster. Other than that, I got a lot of my inspirations from nature (I love the old school style botanical illustrations), post Soviet Union experimental films, and even an everyday dialog. From May 1st to May 5th my works will be showcased and represented by the risograph studio FLUOINK at Open M Art Fair in Hangzhou, China.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One thing that keeps me on my track is to always input more. I think that you can only have enough input to output anything. I’d consume a certain amount of various medias on a daily basis, sometimes even just some of the most random pictures, or a music video. So don’t worry and just go out there and start consuming! Another quality I personally cherished is not to think too much. If you overthink something, you may never start doing it in the first place. Sometimes things just work themselves out in the process. At least half of my works started soon as I had the idea, and then most of them just turned out to be what I wanted, and even if they don’t, it’s always fun to experiment more and learn from mistakes. My last advice would be try to learn from the masters if you are struggling with your style. I also used to struggle with developing my own style, so it’s natural to learn from the artists you see on internet. I have my fair share of favorite artists on internet, too. But it’s also useful to learn from the masters on art history books. Plus, it’s not plagiarism if the works are already past due their copyright protections (just kidding!).
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
There are a lot of books that have crossed my mind, but I would say The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky has a huge influence on me. It just has so many beautiful lines and the themes really make me think, such as the discussion of religion and faith. My favorite chapter in the book is The Grand Inquisitor, the psychological struggle and bread vs freedom presented in the chapter. The wisdom I sympathize with the most is Dostoevsky’s depiction of love and living, “Love life more than the meaning of it?”. This quote keeps reminding me just to live, and that’s enough.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://qinh245.myportfolio.com/work
- Instagram: @gotta_blue (https://www.instagram.com/gotta_blue/)
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