We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rimski Cruz Chua. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rimski below.
Hi Rimski, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
To me, finding a purpose in life translates to what kind of life we want to live. I’ve always been a curious kid. For as long as I remember, I’ve pondered the meaning of life and what I should do with it. I’ve experienced many losses of loved ones, which enabled me to realize that death is inevitable. So, the time we have here is precious. As I grew older, my questions and approach about life changed. How can I seek the depths of things? When do I feel the utmost fulfillment and what disrupts me from retaining these enriching moments? I may or may not have the answer, as our purpose (like our dreams), change as we age. Here I am at 27 years old.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Los Angeles-based artist Rimski Cruz Chua moved to California from the Philippines at the age of ten and received her AA in Studio Arts and Communications at Los Angeles City College. Her cross-cultural experience as a Chinese-Filipina heavily impact the she conceptualize her works. Two themes she concentrates on are piecing together fragments of reminiscence and carefully highlighting ordinary subjects and landscapes in her environment and showcasing them onto the canvas. Memories from her unique childhood or an embrace of the subjects and landscapes in her ever-changing life is what moves her every stroke.
As a recipient of the Dreamers Act, Chua also draws strength from immigrant stories, whom possess distinct narratives that challenge stereotypes and expand perspectives within the art world. Chua agrees with most, that being an immigrant can lead to displacement, loneliness, and an identity crisis due to the lack of sense of belonging and relatability with others. However, she believes our adversities and stories can give others (who may have lived similar paths) to gain wisdom or inspiration and maybe even motivation to share their own unique stories.
Since 2022, Chua began curating art shows, participating in art exhibitions and group shows, and accepting commission-based freelance work. It’s her aspiration that individuals who are acquainted with her art experience a diminished sense of solitude, nostalgia, and longing, while those who are unfamiliar will be stimulated by curiosity, informed by knowledge, and left desiring further exploration.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
As an artist, I place my efforts on honing my patience, empathy, and relationship with solitude. In my craft (like most artists of any kind), I must confine myself to dissect my emotions and look inwardly. My sadness and desires, love and loss, dreams, memories, and my day to day life are sentiments I aim to depict on my canvas; my true riches of life. To go deep within the roots of my heart and paint with sincerity. There are days where I can’t summon these riches, so I remember that quiet tranquility is required for any meaningful artistry. It cannot be calculated, rushed, or judged. I must paint even when it seems like nothing is happening, because we all ripen like a tree in the disciplines of art. When I paint: I form my independent identity, I am free and the world’s criteria has no currency in my world. For me, it is the utmost form of self-love and calls for private victories (which, in my opinion, are more meaningful than public ones). Painting has become my home, my safe place. With all its hardships and heartbreaks, life gave me countless grand opportunities to mature. With this in mind, I know I must continue forward and inward, living in the present and reaching within my core. Painting allowed me to see, feel, and think differently. This is how I find purpose and fulfilment in my everyday life and love with all my strength. In return, I become a better artist and human being. I encourage others to practice these qualities to ensure growth in their artistry and personhood.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
I cannot praise Rainer Maria Rilke enough, for Letters to a Young Poet not only applies to all artists but anyone who wishes guidance. Rilke was twenty six when he wrote to Franz Xaver Kappus in 1902, he was a 19th century poet and novelist, well known in the German language.
A few of my favorite quotes from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet:
“Go into yourself, Examine the reason that bids you to write; check whether it reaches its roots into the deepest region of your heart, admit to yourself whether you would die if it should be denied you to write.”
“..love your solitude and bear the pain it causes you with melody wrought with lament.”
“Allow your verdicts their own quiet untroubled development which like all progress must come from deep within and cannot be forced or accelerated. Everything must be carried to term before it is born.”
“Do not watch yourself too closely. Do not draw rapid conclusions from what is happening to you. Simply let it happen. Otherwise you will too readily find yourself looking on your past, which is of course not uninvolved with everything that is going on in you now, reproachfully (that is, moralistically). But what now affects you from among the divagations, desires and longings of your boyhood is not what you will recall and condemn.”
Contact Info:
- Website:www.rimskichua.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/rimskichua
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rimtoki
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimski-chua-904702119/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rimskichua1
Image Credits
Photos were taken and edited by yours truly
