Welcome to the second volume of Morning Pages, a newsletter sharing inspirations at the intersection of culture and identity, creative experiments, and studio updates.
For many years when people ask me: “Who are your role models in design?” It was challenging for me to come up with an answer.
Even today it's still difficult to find design leaders who are like me. I’m a woman of color and an immigrant who doesn’t speak English as my first language. As a result, I shifted my focus to look for role models outside of design.
In the next couple of weeks, I'm writing about a few role models who I often visualize as my inner mentors. I’ll share how their brilliant work guided me along the path to solo entrepreneurship. I hope my story will inspire you to discover your inner mentor, and meet your future self.
Elle Luna - Artist & Author
In 2013, I went to an event organized by Designers + Geeks and watched Elle Luna (@elleluna) give a talk titled "Find Your Must”. Her story profoundly shifted my perspective about life.
From a designer in tech to an independent artist, Elle shared her scary and vulnerable journey of finding her calling. At the time of the talk, it had been six months since Elle departed her corporate design job. Seven years later that talk was developed into a best-selling book "The Crossroad of Should and Must".
Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. It’s our instincts, our cravings and longings, the things and places and ideas we burn for, the intuition that swells up from somewhere deep inside of us. Must is what happens when we stop conforming to other people’s ideals and start connecting to our own.
— Elle Luna
Since the talk, Elle became my role model and inner mentor. I followed her creative retreat in Bali and read about her interview in "The Great Discontent". I started to search inward and ask myself "What is my job vs career vs calling?"
In 2016, I felt inspired after spending a few weeks back home in China. I wanted to start learning Chinese ink painting. I did one piece a day as a part of the 100 Day Project, a global creative movement created by Elle. In the middle of my 100 Day Project, Elle Luna visited Twitter to share her book and gave a talk. I showed her my ongoing 100 Day Project and got her to sign the book. It was a fantastic feeling to be seen by your role model.
In 2016, towards the end of this 100 Day Project, I also produced a series of limited prints and sold some of them online and in local craft fairs.
Since I began sharing my work, my talented friend Tiantian Xu started her amazing series of projects. In the following year, a group of my colleagues began their projects #TwitterDesignx100. Someone once stopped me in a supermarket and told me they started a watercolor painting project after hearing about it in my talk.
Thanks to Elle Luna, I learned to honor my gift and share it with the world. This journey wouldn't be possible without her showing me the way.
Creative Sparks
September 15 marks the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Google Arts & Culture created a great curated collection of Latino cultures in the US. This week, I'll share a few Hispanic artists that I follow.
Victoria Villasana, Textile Artist
Victoria Villasana(@villanaart) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After studying design at a university in Mexico, she spent over a decade in London where she became well known in the street art community for her rebellious femininity and acute cross-cultural imagery.
She cites her experience in these different cultures as inspirational in her work, describing her art as a “symbiosis of cultures.” Her trademark pieces, portraits embellished with yarn and pasted up on London streets, mix indigenous Mexican and western art and deliver a healthy dose of rebellious femininity.
Carlos Delgado
Carlos Delgado(@artcarlosdelgado), is a Colombian artist living between Colombia and Canada. He paints abstract portraits, plays with mark-making techniques with a palette knife, and lets the paint organically form and interweave the different emotions.
In his own words, "Through my abstract portrait work, I focus on the subtle way these human experiences are expressed, be it in our facial gestures, in the way we occupy and share space with each other or the way we present ourselves to the world."
Beyond Thoughts
If you don’t design your own life plan
chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan.
And guess what they have planned for you?
Not much.
— Jim Rohn
Thank you for reading the second volume of Morning Pages. All views in this newsletter are my own. If you’re enjoying this newsletter and want to express your appreciation, spread the word and support the studio for the price of a cup of ☕️.
Yuan Studio is a space that explores the intersections of global cultures and identities. Currently, the studio is incubating a series of creative projects, such as Morning Pages, as well as offering coaching for people of color to harness the power of their creativity & leadership potentials. You can reach out on Twitter and LinkedIn.