Meet Nori Shi | Digital Artist, Illustrator

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

Hi Nori, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
When I was still in art school, one of my teachers said something like, “When you want to redo an old piece, then there must be more than two years from when you first finished it for your changes to be valid.” I also use this as a benchmark when deciding whether or not to end, aka “give up” on a piece – do the art effects that I want now take a certain amount of time of study and practice before I can express them? I called this the “two years from now I’ll work it out” point, and this is the core point for me to check whether to keep going or to give up.

To explain with a practical example, i.e. while doing digital paintings, I usually choose to go back to the last two steps after finishing some strokes or effects to check if my new addition looks useful for the overall picture. If they are inconsequential, then there will be no difference after I’ve scaled down the piece for preview. And if I’ve been working on this piece for more than a day, then I think I’ve reached the “two years from now I’ll work it out” point, the point where I need to give up on the piece, at least for now.

On a more general level, such moments of giving up happen when I realize that I “have to change for the better”. Coincidentally, I’ve been trying to change my art style recently because I felt that my previous style no longer fit the path I wanted to take in the future. One aspect of this is determined by the industry: the “illustration” product I want to try recently has a certain trend for a certain period of time, maybe a set of colors or a line style, and it needs to be something you can meet when it appears as a commercial product – maybe a magazine cover accompanied by text, or a packaging box for cookies. My existing, relatively skilled style doesn’t really fit this category; on the other hand, with the rise of new technologies such as AI Painting, there is a risk that my existing style will be replaced to some extent, and this affects my creative mood. Not knowing how to find a balance, I decided to give up my existing style and return to line art – a style I had also given up a few years ago and switched to the current one.

To summarize, I don’t think it’s a particularly difficult decision to decide when to give up – because “giving up” is not permanent for me, but just a means to find a way out of the current dilemma.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I like creating landscapes. I rely heavily on realistic references to imagine and recreate, so I have accumulated a lot of personal photo materials. When I have a sudden inspiration (for example, I suddenly want to draw a sea of flowers), I will look for these materials, and on top of that, through other means such as 3D modeling, eventually create a world that is only mine. What evolves with time is the perception of this matter; at the earliest, I believe the best painting must be only possible to draw through illusion without any connection with reality.

Based on this, another topic that I am studying and pursuing is how to make works that are “only mine”. When creating my work, I always unconsciously try to associate myself with a larger group of people – such as “female painters”, “Asians”, and/or “sexual minorities” – because I am not confident and uneasy about my work. This can bring some sense of belonging, but what I want to do is to leave a record in my work that belongs only to me.

I was very bad at communicating with people from a young age. I was afraid to speak, even in my native language. So I wanted to choose a way to express myself without me having to speak – through images (although that doesn’t seem to be the case at all today). At the same time, while growing up, my personality was completely irreconcilable with the dominant Chinese model, and it was relatively safe for me to resolve this conflict through painting. This was the beginning of my decision to attend an art school for college, and the beginning of my entire artistic career.

I came to New York at what I consider to be the “last moment of change in solidified mindset” – when I was 18. I went from a “proper” Chinese high school to an “improper” art school in New York, so to speak in terms of the popular perception of the environment I was born in. My experience at art school was not what I would consider pleasant; However, I enjoy observing and reflecting on different points of opinion, although obviously this can also be subjective – one always tends to choose the point of view that makes one comfortable, and New York, a city of immigrant integration, is a wonderful library. I have seen a lot of unprecedented exchange and integration of ideas here, and I tend to believe that they have helped me become the person I am today.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It’s exactly September and what I consider the most comfortable season in New York – a little longer and it will be too cold to travel outside. I’ll want to take my friend and spend the day sleeping in until noon then going to the American Museum of Natural History to see a dome movie under the stars, then having a picnic in Central Park and arriving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as night falls. The MET at night is a magical world unlike any daytime experience you can imagine unless you see it for yourself. Then we left and went to a Thai restaurant not far away called Up Thai – the best Thai restaurant in New York, in my opinion.

The next day will be a slightly busier day, given that we will be leaving New York City(in a narrow sense) for a while. We will go to Grand Central Station and take the 11am train to Beacon. Dia Beacon is one of the best modern art museums in the world in my opinion. Its unique layout and light transmission give it even a hint of the divinity of a religious site. It’s best if this day is a Thursday or weekend – so that after the tour we can pick up a few cans of beer at Hudson River Brewery, after all, it costs a fortune to buy them online and send them to New York.

The third day I think requires a relaxing day off, which I would name a dessert hopping day. Around the East Village, stretching all the way to the Union Square neighborhood, there are a huge number of dessert stores tucked away- Patisserie Fouet, ChikaLicious Dessert Bar, Setsugekka East Village and so many more. The only caveat is that many of them are so terribly popular that they need to be located even months in advance – a schedule that needs to be arranged well ahead of time.
On the fourth day we’ll go to The High Line, a walk along the Hudson River with its many galleries and the famous Chelsea Market, and maybe we’ll see some art students being taken out by their teachers to sketch – that’s how I first visited here 8 years ago. Depending on our energy level, we’ll decide if we’ll go to the Whitney Museum; it’s not as attractive without the special exhibitions, but it’s still a great experience to stand on the roof and watch the sunset.

On our last day we will return to Brooklyn, the area where I live. Dumbo is famous for its carousel, where many happy couples can be seen taking wedding photos at any time of the day. And it’s also a great place to sketch the New York Midtown skyline. Whether it’s the bridge or the buildings lining the other side of the river, time will fly by as you sit on the stone steps outside the carousel, feel the wind blowing over the water and listen to the sound of the waves hitting the rocks. And at night time, we can go to a very good Vietnamese food restaurant called Em Vietnamese Bistro, where the clams are the best.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a special thanks to my family. Being from an East Asian family, I was surrounded by the idea that “only children who don’t do well in school will create art” at every stage of my life. My family was no exception, but when they realized my determination to become an art practitioner, they respected my opinion and have tried to understand it in their own way ever since. My mother started taking Chinese painting lessons the year I entered art school, and understood my perspective on the world by becoming an art creator herself. I’m very grateful for that, and because of that, I wish every parent in an East Asian family would try to do the same thing – you never know how much damage you can do to the next generation by blindly following what you think is the “social mainstream”.

Besides that, I would like to thank very much to Feminists and the LGBTQ community. Refining my knowledge of both identities and realizing that I also belong to them has dramatically changed my creative path, and I am proud of it.

Website: https://jshiart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Norino_Shi_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/norino_art

Image Credits
Some Concept Art Commissions may contain visual elements from following works, as they were made as fanarts: Final Fantasy XIV Touhou Project