Meet Nancy Made

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nancy Made. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nancy, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Honestly what really helped me was the fact that I came to accept how imposter syndrome exists in everyone and not just me. I also chose to embrace it as it’s something I know that I will still experience in the future. There’s nothing wrong with having rooms of doubt, if anything it shows how much I see potential for growth and improvement. Understanding that these feelings are normal and actually feeling them rather than suppressing and going down a spiral is so much better for my mental health as well. Whenever I do feel like this though I do my best to relax and do something I enjoy so that I can take my mind off of it. The point isn’t to not be aware of it, the point is to understand that this challenge comes and goes and that you’ll be okay in the future.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Hello! My name is Nancy and I’m a surface designer/illustrator. I would say that my art has a lot to do with the feeling of chasing nostalgia and dreams. My art is one of the most important things to me in my life and it brings me a lot of joy if other people can hear my heart through my art. I’m truthfully not a very social person and I have troubles conveying myself to most people, so it warms my heart that I’m able to do that through my art. As for media I really enjoy using both traditional and digital media combined. I love the organic and raw textures that traditional media brings and the touchups to make my artwork pop even more that digital media brings. I don’t want to be limited to one thing because a person is never just one thing, we all have different interests throughout our life so I don’t think it’s fair to limit yourself. The beauty of art and life is that it’s everchanging. I hope I was able to convey myself and my beliefs properly! My art is 100% made by Nancy.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

To fall in love with the process, know yourself and to be okay with imperfections. I used to be very much of a “I just want this to be done” kind of person. There was no love for the process for me, and the reason why for that was that I had so many concepts and ideas in my mind that I wanted to move on to the next thing right away. I learn that taking things slow not only makes my ideas shine even more but also documenting the process is a artform in itself. Once I switched the idea of work to documenting my ideas and thought process it made everything a lot more enjoyable. Next is to know yourself and being okay with imperfections, now these may sound like total opposites but in reality it’s really the same thing. I used to be super self conscious on not having a consistent style and felt lost because of it, but later on one of my professor’s said “you are who you’re meant to be” and that really helped me understand how of course it’s great to have consistency in your projects as it builds better branding and voice. But that being said also be okay with liking what you like and having fun exploring any interests. Because people are way more complex and once again we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just one thing.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

My parents are both immigrants to America and because of that I am first gen and a ABC ( American Born Chinese) and I’m proud of it. My parents have sacrificed a lot for me and have supported my dreams of being an artist ever since I was young. Because they’re Asian parents the words ‘I love you’ isn’t common but their actions always proves their love and support for me, and that is what matters because actions are indeed louder than words. There’s also a lot of “bond between mother and daughter” concept in my art because of them. I am super grateful for all that they’ve done for me and I want to repay them by being able to support them in the future with my art, just like how they supported me.

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Image Credits

100% made by Nancy

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