Getting to Know Wai Ying Zhao ’14: An artist and a scholar

Wai Ying Zhao defies classification. She’s an Art and Economics double-major, has studied Japanese throughout her time at Conn, plays the flute and completed a ConnSSHARP (Connecticut College Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts Research Program) project about the Chinese art market. With this broad array of interests, it’s no surprise that Wai Ying has a lot to talk about. The College Voice spoke with her recently about her myriad pursuits.

The College Voice: How did you first get started with visual art?

Wai Ying Zhao: I’ve been drawing and painting since I was young. My mom is into art, so she helped us with kindergarten work when we were younger. So I’d been thinking about being a designer when I was younger.

TCV: By designer, do you mean an interior designer? A fashion designer?

WYZ: I was just nine years old — probably fashion design. But I applied to a lot of architecture schools when I was applying to college. I got into a lot of five-year programs thinking it’d be a good way for me to integrate art with practical stuff. I chose Conn because my parents wanted me to also study economics. I came thinking I’d double major, or do an Econ minor and Architectural Studies major.
Along the way, I decided differently. I’ve been taking art every semester of my life, I think. Freshman year, I just took art for fun. I had this visiting professor, Brad Guarino. He was like, “I’m telling all the art professors that you should be an art minor.” The fourth semester I was here, he was like, “I bet you’re gonna be an art major.” So I ended up becoming an art major second semester of sophomore year and have been doing art — mostly painting and drawing — ever since.

TCV: Have you taken classes in other media here as well?

WYZ: Yeah. We have to do 3-D art, and I also have done a collaboration with a video installation class. “Fine arts” at Conn College is quite broad. You can do art in any medium you want, pretty much.
All the professors here are practicing artists and all of them have fantastic artwork. There are so many different artists who are good at different things. Each of them is able to give you some aspect of what you should improve on to help you come up with the best artwork you can. I guess it’s because they’re all so experienced in the art world. Conn always has really highly educated professors, so… The art department is especially good.

TCV: Some of your artwork is on exhibit in New Haven right now. Where and when did those pieces originate?

WYZ: I went to France this summer with Assistant Professor of Art Chris Barnard. The program was about idea imaging: imaging whatever idea we had and drawing it in a two-dimensional way. In one month, each of us did more than 500 pieces of artwork: drawings or paintings.

TCV: Was that your goal, a certain  number? Or  did it just happen?

WYZ: It just happened. Overnight, we’d have to do 20 or 30 drawings. One day last semester, Professor Barnard and Associate Professor of Art Pamela Marks came to me and said, “You should do this program with Professor Robert Reed at Yale” — because both of them are good friends with Professor Reed. They said, “It’s going to be a life-changing experience.” Here, a lot of people do artwork and in one semester, they’ll only do four pieces of good art. That’s probably pretty much what each student does, every semester.
But the [Yale] program has a different pedagogy. They try to have you image one idea and then generate your next drawing or painting off of that first image. It’s a sequence of development, a retrospective of what you were thinking. The show at the gallery at Yale showed the work of all 13 fellows, including me.
A lot of Professor Reed’s ideas are about studying life through the art imaging process. It’s really abstract… At first we weren’t allowed to use a pencil sharpener. He wanted us to think outside of the box. It’s about the skills you can gain. This program was pretty much just an intensive in idea imaging practice.

TCV: Can you explain idea imaging a little bit?

WYZ: Usually when an artist starts to create a piece of artwork, you have an idea to convey. If people wanted to show the traumas and emotions when 9/11 happened, you have to image that. Like, some people would choose to paint a jet and buildings — you have to translate the idea into something visual.

TCV: What was the living situation like during the program?

WYZ: We were working in a little town in southern France. We students were divided into two apartments that were really close to our studio. We had studio hours every day from 9 a.m. to noon, and then we were required to have a two-hour lunch and two-hour dinner. And then 2 to 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. to midnight. We didn’t use cell phones or anything: no distraction. Professor Reed’s team would set a goal for all of us — “Do ten drawings by tonight” — and everyone would do that. So it was a practice in time management too, and knowing when you work best and fastest.

TCV: You’re an art and economics double major, which is an unusual combination, to say the least. My first guess was that your parents wanted you to major in something other than art — is that true?

WYZ: Economics was a compromise. My parents were entrepreneurs. In their minds, knowing how to earn money is the most important thing. They consider art more a hobby than a profession. It’s such a complicated thing I was thinking about before France. I wanted to be an artist, but I’ve been confused about how I could combine skills I’ve learned from economics into my art. It’s been a conflicting issue that I’ve been thinking of in my way of finding out what I want. They wanted me to do economics for a long time and I’ve been doing it because it’s within my capability, but I always wanted to be an artist.
In France, I realized that if you’re able to manage your time, you can still make art while you are a businesswoman. For me, art is just about life — you could do art and it’s one thing that helps you express your passion, but it’s not supposed to be something that gives you income. I feel like art is more of a spiritual thing. You practice to elevate and transform yourself. For me, it’s less about production, but more about self-discovery, finding what I don’t know. After France, I felt like art and economics are not that different. It’s strange. Right now, I agree with my parents a lot more than I used to. Art for me is a practice instead of for commercial use. It’s something you do to comfort yourself instead of something you must do for a living.