Meet Angie Wang | Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Angie Wang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Angie, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
When I graduated from college during the Great Recession of 2008, unemployment was at a high, I had carpal tunnel syndrome from typing my undergraduate thesis, and my Linguistics degree hadn’t prepared me for the job market. The only work I was fit to do was, strangely, illustration. So that’s what I did.

Why did I pursue a career in art? It was the only thing I’m good for.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As an artist, I’m kind of a grab bag—I used to have a very defined style starting out in my career, but I’ve long since committed to developing a new visual language for every illustration project. This is an approach that takes a lot of exploration and experimentation, and it doesn’t give me a marketable visual “brand,” and sometimes this approach disappoints people who want to hire me for a predictable style for an illustration.

But I think it also makes my work unexpected and fun, and gives me the latitude to really approach every project with a exploratory mindset.

Lately, I’m proudest of my illustrated essay, “Is My Toddler A Stochastic Parrot?” which appeared in the New Yorker a few months ago. I worked on it alone over the summer without any expectation of where it was going to go or what magazine would want to publish a long-form visual essay on AI from a random illustrator with no background in machine learning, but I needed to say it and I wanted people to hear it.

In my work I’m often trying to articulate an overwhelming, ambivalent feeling inside myself—and then it’ll often turn out that others see themselves inside this feeling too. Making art makes me feel connected to others in some unspeakably powerful way, and I need that to live.

Here’s an example: years ago, I was struggling with a painful breakup. The breakup had in fact been so long ago that I felt tremendous embarrassment holding onto all this resentment. The whole thing was petty and ridiculous, and yet it had this grip on me.

At the time, I was working on Steven Universe, and when I saw the animatic of the episode “Mr Greg,” a character in it sings about this exact same feeling—and the *singing* of it was beautiful. I examined my own feeling and this time, I found it beautiful instead of embarrassing.

In that moment, it let go of me. And I was healed. That’s what I get from art, and that’s what I want my art to do.

For me, it’s not about seeing healthy outcomes modeled on-screen. I’m not looking for an uplifting story or inspiring examples. It’s simply that someone else saying, “Hey, there’s you in me, and there’s me in you,” frees me from pain. I’ve always needed a lot of healing, and art is often the only thing that can heal me.

I think all of my strongest pieces—the animation about eating my baby called “My Love,” the animation about making art during the pandemic, the water-boiled fish comic that won the James Beard award a few years ago—are centered around this understanding of art.

As for my career path, I’ve had an unusual trajectory. I’m terrible at self-promotion, so it’s an honor that people have reached out to me when they see the things I make. My first art directors, when I wanted to do editorial illustration, reached out to me to give me those opportunities. When I started working on Steven Universe, it was thanks to Rebecca Sugar reaching out to me at a convention.

I always tell my students that this is not a normal career path, and that they should be active in finding opportunities for themselves, but I’ve been tremendously blessed to have really kind, lovely people wanting to hire me for my work.

On brand: I don’t think I have a brand? I create whatever it is I want to create at any given time when it comes to my own work, and I tailor a specific approach to the given project when it’s not my own work. It’s an honor and a surprise that somehow I’ve stayed afloat doing this.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh boy, this answer has changed a lot since becoming a parent.

Well, I’d want them to go to Baroo and do the tasting menu there. Baroo was my favorite restaurant in its first incarnation, with the kimchi fried rice with gremolata and pineapple salsa, and the $110 tasting menu was amazing. They’ll have to go without me because there’s no way I’m bringing my toddler, but that would be my must-visit.

And then they’d probably have to come with me to Kidspace Children’s Museum because I’m on childcare duty on the weekends, and it’s a nice little children’s museum with lots of play areas. We’d also hit up The Broad for as long as my toddler can tolerate. Then, while my husband is putting the toddler to bed, we’d go see a movie at Vidiots.

If I have some time during the day while the toddler’s at daycare, we’d make a trip to York and visit Crush & Touch to buy some caterpillar-shaped hair clips and Big Bud for some coveralls, and we could make a stop at Joy for an affordable and tasty lunch. But realistically, we’ll be spending a lot of time at my house hanging out with my kid.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to thank my dad, who was not the typical Chinese-American immigrant dad who thinks art is a crummy line of work! He always believed in me.

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