Yuanyi Ma

To begin, can you tell me a bit about your artistic practice? What inspires it, and what you're trying to get across?

Oh, man, I would say nature, first and foremost, inspires it. All the beauty of the world we live in, and the animals and other other paintings inspire it too. I really like earlier works a little more than contemporary art, because it's like they really knew how to tell stories back then with the paint. And it seems like we're sort of losing that a little bit, or it's not getting more sophisticated. I guess that's one of the reasons I do it: just to try to keep that tradition alive. I love to paint; the main thing is the joy of it is pretty much why I do it. I'm able to relive these experiences while I paint, so it's almost like reading a book or something. You just sort of get lost in it a little bit. That's about it.

That’s lovely. I like that you mentioned nature because I know you grew up in rural Mississippi and now you've chosen to live more rurally, deeper in the mountains. Tell me about if there are any memories that you have growing up in these sorts of environments that influence how you see this beauty.

Growing up in the South, the southern United States, you're always reminded of the dark history, the history of slavery. And that’s really moved me; I think that moved the mood in my painting. If you come down here and you travel around, you can feel what I'm talking about. And it's still there a little bit. It's sort of a haunting type of feeling that I try to portray in my work, because I'm really against any kind of discrimination towards anyone, let alone slavery. So I think that fuels my work a lot. And I feel like painting in the south, I'm able to make a little difference with trying to portray something that's undiscriminatory, because I think with art you're kind of able to fight the ignorant frame of mind that might exist.

Do you think that's something that people in the creative practice who are very inspired by the American South, who perhaps associate themselves with the Southern Gothic aesthetic also hold to their practice.

You know what? I'm really not sure about that, because I'm not exactly sure what that even means. You know, Southern Gothic, yeah, I think I've fallen into that genre somehow. I really, just try to be a little light in the darkness, in a way, or I like to think of it that way, because it makes me feel like I'm making some kind of a difference

Across a lot of your paintings, I noticed this very fantastical element in how you incorporate animals. They seem to have different functions across your pieces. So it's not like a crow is necessarily a symbol of x, or like the bull in 

 is necessarily a symbol of y. Can you tell me about how you use nature as a form of storytelling in your art?

Wow, I mean, nature to me is the work of some sort of divine entity. That's what I believe. I don't know. I don't prescribe it any kind of detail. I'm not religious in any way, so I don't know what it is, and I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I do believe that it's it's something spiritual, and it just seems like the more that I try to incorporate it in my work, the more spiritual I'm becoming, or I make the story.

Two issues ago, we published our land issue, and I feel like that would have fit so neatly with the work that you do. I'm very interested in how your choice to live away from urban, city spaces and how that might impact your art. Can you tell me about your decision to move into the mountains?

Again, I think it goes back to that trying to reflect the spirituality I see in the world. When I'm in a city, it feels like the spirituality isn’t there—it seems to be diluted a little bit, or, I don't know how to describe it, but as a young adult, I liked the city a lot, but as I've gotten older, I really thrive on quietness.

Do you find this more conducive to your creative process?

I do. I think we know so much about what's going on around us, but we haven't tapped into it quite yet fully, or we don't know how complex the brain is, but I think that being alone here, I'm able to tap into maybe a sort of spirituality that helps my art be more in sync with the divine—the divine of the universe.

Can you just describe for me the place that you're living in right now. If you walk out your door, what do you immediately see?

There's a road right out front, and it's kind of close, so it's a country road, but it's still pretty busy. That's the first thing you would notice the cars driving by. I have a dog that sleeps outside on the porch; her dog house is out there so she's always there. It's really nice. All around me is land that belongs to the place that I live, and there are no neighbors next to me really. So it's peaceful; it's beautiful; it's a four season type of weather, so you can enjoy all the seasons. But I would probably say my dog is almost the most important part of this place. I'm tempted to take you out there and show you.

Yeah, this is Venus. Hey girl, what are you doing?

[Intermission of YM meeting Venus, sleeping on top of several mattresses in the backyard, very princess and the pea-like]

Had you always wanted to go to art school?

I think so. I've always loved creativity; creative atmospheres create creative people, right? Yeah, I've always really liked that.

What was your experience in art school like?

I kind of did my own sort of thing there. I was so interested in making art; I always wanted to do more than they asked for, so it was pretty easy as far as completing assignments and keeping my grades up. I learned a lot about different technical methods, but I think the spirituality part of my practice was always there. I don't know how good school was for that, but I would say that art school is expensive for one, and the other is I liked it. It was nice because I really like Portland, where I went to school. It's a really cool city, and it was almost worth it just for that.

Do you think that going to art school and studying art under more rigor changed the extent to which you associate spirituality with your practice?

Possibly, I don't know if I connected to it when it was happening, but I would say yes, because there were more people and more outlooks that I became a part of with the people there, so I'm sure that helped me spiritually.

One of the pieces that we were looking at, 

, I believe it's a self portrait of you? I was curious about the religious elements in that piece and how religion generally influences your work, especially because you've said that you don't associate with any religion. Can you talk more about that?

I grew up in a conservative group, a Christian environment, and I think that that kind of outlook really limits people, and I've been trying to make work that shines light on that. I really don't like the narrow mindedness that happens in those kinds of situations. So I think a part of being an artist that I really like is that I'm able to talk about these kinds of things and people, I think, maybe can understand it, and I can sort of touch people. Maybe, sometimes, you know, yeah, yeah, so that's good. What else can you want, right?

Can you tell me about a piece that you are really proud of, that you feel represents your practice well?

The one that I sent you of the boy running from the wolf. I would say that that painting kind of encompasses how I feel about life. It’s an important painting in that respect and also because of the size; it's the biggest painting I've ever painted, I think so it's kind of fitting that it means a great deal to me. It seems like it captures the moment that we've been aware, we've been, in a way, under attack, constantly.

On top of that, can you say more about what you mean when you say you feel this painting encompasses how you feel about life?

You know, it’s like there's always a predator—there's always some sort of being that is trying to take advantage of you in some way. It seems like wherever you go in the world, you can't escape it. It’s a primal thing, though; it feels like prey and predator.

Is that why you include so many animals in your paintings, to get at that more primal experience, as opposed to the more manufactured human thing that's been straying from nature?

I think so. Animals are pretty amazing to me.

Yeah, by just the way they look, you know? I mean, if you were plopped down on this world and you had no idea about it, you would be flabbergasted. I think a lot of people take that for granted. I don't know why, but I think that they get so wrapped up

Do you constantly encounter animals when you walk outside?

Yuanyi Ma

Yuanyi Ma

Art

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