We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raven Jiang a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Raven, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
In my opinion, as a position in the creative industry, illustrators, in addition to focusing on the attractive narrative itself, narrative methods and techniques are also very important. In addition to visual arts, I will widely appreciate works of art from different media and different eras, such as movies and novels. Other than intellectual interpretation, I also attach great importance to my direct feelings, likes, and dislikes about different works and things around me. At the same time, I often relax to appreciate the daily chores and feel all the details that support my life in the trivial and daily life. For me, creativity always comes from delicate feelings and sufficiently honest expressions.
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?
I am a New York-based illustrator who just graduated this May from the School of Visual Arts MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program. I am focusing on the abstract and emotional visual expression that can better convey more dimensional information with text. More focused on expressing the emotional tension between multiple static scenes and abstract graphics, my work is very strong for some content with complex and controversial content. Moreover, I am very enthusiastic about independent publishing and artist’s book. In the two years since I entered to start studying art, I have been selected for many art fairs in New York City and got more involved in the art community. My works began to receive more recognition, and two of my titles are included in Printed Matter’s distribution program. Three of my titles are recently collected by the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
As a creator with a variety of skills and different educational backgrounds and work experiences, what has benefited me more than a certain skill is some mentality and working methods.
1. I want to put honesty first. Before, I always saw too much that could be learned and achieved, and I was always tired and unconfident. But later I realized that my abilities and energy are limited. Self-discipline and dissatisfaction are good, but excessive pursuit of perfection leads to a harmful self-flagellation. Reasonably analyzing current tasks, honestly facing your current abilities, and rationally allocating your energy are also skills that need to be refined.
2. Another trait I benefit from is curiosity. Curiosity is part of human nature, but curiosity is a very powerful instinctive willingness to learn. Reasonable guidance and understanding of the topics that best stimulate your curiosity and passion to explore will help you quickly find your own unique way to solve the situation. At the same time, it can also drive you to continue working and learning in the field for a long time.
3.The third point is some of the logical thinking skills I accumulated as a former science and engineering student. Although as a creator, perceptual thinking has always occupied a partially dominant position, my logical thinking ability has been of great help to me in terms of new knowledge, academic qualifications and understanding, as well as in the process of implementing projects. In the current era of excess information, logical ability can help people find the center of contradiction in complicated information more effectively, eliminating unnecessary internal friction. Even when facing your own emotions and intuitive reactions, your logical ability can better help you grasp these inspirations and fleeting and vague thoughts.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I didn’t have an art-related background, so I always felt pain about it in the beginning and always wanted to catch up and make amends. But later I discovered that many of my unique expressions and perspectives come from my anxious emotions and reflections on my predicament. From another perspective, my dilemma has brought me my way of making progress. But to transform these thoughts and emotions into your creations requires enough candor and careful thinking, as well as diligence in execution. Therefore, I believe that all “shortcomings” do not always have to be made up for. There is so much knowledge and skills in the world that can be learned and improved. I think it is more important to think about how a certain force is related to the current predicament and then find the next step that suits you, to avoid falling into self-destructive self-discipline and effort.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.ravenanother.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raven_another/
Image Credits
all credit @Raven Jiang
