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

Hi Vyolet, why did you pursue a creative career?
Because of LOVE of course! Art almost came to me naturally when I was a kid. I used to doodle on all my textbooks subconsciously and couldn’t leave a piece of paper blank. Before I decided to pursue art as my career, I dreamed about all different jobs like being a news reporter, a translator, a linguist, and so on; I always wished I could secretly be an artist on the side as a part-time job. After serious consideration and discussion with my parents after my first year in college, I decided to transfer to SVA and study Illustration.

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.
Good question haha. I’m graduating with my master’s this May, and with this learning experience, I can finally say I know what I want to draw now. I want my content to be fun, lively, energetic, and playful. My versatility with the same vibrant color palette sets my work apart. For example, I can use bright colors to express the message, whether the content is positive or negative. Visually, to keep my illustrations from becoming monotonous, I freely emphasize the parts of my piece that carry my message by exaggerating the features of the work.

I didn’t get to this point effortlessly; for a long time, I felt I needed to continue adding details to every corner of my work, resulting in an overcrowded illustration. By this, I don’t mean the image looked visually jarring, but my work lacked a focused meaning. I’ve learned to broaden my sights to encompass different perspectives when developing my pieces. For example, where I would previously have researched only illustrations related to my subject area, I now branch out to draw inspiration from different media. This has included photography, graphic design, less obviously related mediums such as creative makeup, music pieces that fit the emotion I want to portray, and even stylistic furniture.

Central to my brand’s image is taking advantage of my highly sensitive personality to present a different view of the world from my perspective. Everything I feel can be expressed by a burst of color.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m based in New York and live in Jersey City, two train stops from Manhattan. Sometimes my friends visit during the long weekend, arriving Friday night.

So on Saturday morning, I would take them to the best-tasting sandwich cafe close to my home, the Semicolon Cafe. I always suggest the fluffy and crispy BELT (bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato) sandwich: the feedback is always “YUMMMM!” The wait time is usually half an hour long, so we can catch up on life and share pet pictures while waiting. After eating, we take the path train to Manhattan and look at the newest exhibits in a local museum. Once, the “Inspiring Walt Disney” exhibition was on at the MET, and another time we visited MoMA to see “Matisse: The Red Studio.” If time and weather allow, I take them to Highline Park to breathe some fresh air and walk through the greenery as the sun sets. After dark, we’ll grab some food from nearby Chelsea Market. I don’t have any preference here since all the food is good there. There are also a few stores in the market for us to look at after dinner, like “Artists & Fleas,” which has small artist tables, or “Pearl River Mart,” which sells Asian souvenirs. After a long day like this, my friend and I would be too tired to go out again the next day, so Sunday would be our peaceful stay-at-home working/chatting day.

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?
There are three individuals I would love to shout out — My parents, my school, the School of Visual Arts, and myself. This might sound so generic, but this is genuinely how I feel.

Being an artist is a challenging path to take. To make this decision, you are basically telling your parents, “I’m giving up on a steady income and probably going to starve forever!” Especially for me, who had never studied drawing before college, telling my parents that I wanted to change my major from finance to illustration is like a man who wants to start flying immediately after seeing a plane in the sky. My parents told me their biggest concern is that if I started doing art in college, I’d never be able to catch up with those kids who started when they were 5 years old. Then I told them one can always learn techniques at any time, but inspiration is only for some. The most important thing to achieve in an art piece is not whether it looks good but how the artist conveys what they want to say through the image. My dad nodded, then turned to my mom and said: “neither of us ended up doing our dream job. Now here’s an opportunity we could offer our daughter to make her dream come true. Why shouldn’t we?” I can’t recall the rest of our meeting, but my steps toward an artistic career were firmer after that night. I want to shout out to my parents because even though they know this is a risky path, they decided to support me, trust me, and take the risk with me.

Another shoutout is to SVA! They opened the door to not just the kids who know how to create but those who want to develop and are passionate about art. They accepted me to the BFA program when I was new to art, and they also embraced me again in the MFA program when I was uncertain about my art career. So shout out to SVA for being a giant and always supporting me when needed.

Finally, shout out to me! Good job for getting so far! Thanks for hanging in there even when times were hard. So keep going and create more and more and more!

Instagram: @vyoletzjin

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vyolet-jin-80a51817b/

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