Today I came across a post about from a small business that attributed half of their success to hard work, and the other half to something outside of themselves. For some reason, this reminded me of the first year out of high school when I decided very last second that I wanted to major in something creative. Instead of going directly to university, I went to a community college for a year. I took several drawing and painting, sculpting, and very basic foundational art classes. In that one year, I really did put everything into the work that I produced because I wanted a portfolio to get into a better art school. For the first time in my memory,...
The place of departure for a lot of creative work are feelings that begin abstract, unclear and ambiguous. And the creative process is the avenue in which confessed feelings are explored. So much of what we think we feel is dominated by rationalized feelings; that we should and shouldn’t feel a certain way. Instead of being honest to ourselves and to others, we believe that there are certain feelings that are acceptable, and some that are not. We have the fear that if and when we recognize and admit to a (negative) feeling that is undesirable, then it must be a (negative) reflection of ourselves – but this isn't true because being human is feeling the highs and the lows....
Don’t think it’s ever too late or too early to set an intention (no matter when you’re reading this). For all of January I’ve really pushed back a few things including goal setting. Sometimes we really need the time to settle in, to feel. And then identifying your relationship between what you really want to keep doing more of, what you don’t want to do, and what you need to change. Ultimately, for myself, I recognized that my fear of 2022 could be a copy+paste of 2021. And I never again want any year to feel the same as the previous because that’s my sign to take notice and ask if I’ve been living on auto pilot and have I...
To go in line with Asian Heritage Month this May, we participated in a fundraising project with Rise and Embrace and other women identifying Asian Creatives to raise funds in support of AAPI organizations within the US and Canada. This is the extended version of a series of discussions we had about our personal experience as an Asian Creative behind Soft and Sticky. What's your preferred name, and your (dare I say, 'real') family name? Every few years I drop a letter from my name - like I'm a new version of myself. Some people know me as Angela, Angie, An. This year I feel like going by Ang. And my last name is Chan. Who are...
There was a time in my life when I didn’t share any of my work. If anyone asked, I'd want to say “no I wasn’t part of that project”. Maybe you had a time when you were not proud of your work and hid hoping you could stay anonymous and that your name would not show up in the credits. Or ever at all. I tend to keep a lot of my personal and work projects to myself. I see now that maybe it was my way of protecting myself. Another word for it: the ego. It’s like loving a thing. Let’s take a film that you love as an example, and not wanting to read any ratings or...
