Alice Tsai is a 27 year old freelance artist originally from Taichung city, Taiwan. Tsai moved to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art University and graduated with an MFA degree of illustration. Tsai is currently studying art therapy and psychology, and her biggest wish is to comfort people with her art. She said “One of my recent paintings is called “Dictate”, and the following is a short passage that I wrote for the painting.
“Trees burnt and seeds melted. The ears listen but isolated. Yet they dictate. The red part where the judgmental finger is pointing toward symbols dictatorship.”
The red part where the judgmental finger is pointing toward symbols dictatorship.
Alice Tsai is currently working in a studio in San Francisco called East Art Studio. This has given her an understanding of the mindset of students and their parents, how to guide them to grow, and ways to communicate with them effectively. She has been a teacher for 7 years in different fields including English, Mandarin, oil painting, watercolor, pastel, sketching, modern dancing, and figure drawing. She was fortunate to have opportunities to teach calligraphy, origami, Chinese chess, traditional Asian dancing in the only Traditional characters Mandarin school in Paris, L'Encrier Chinois, and also in ICEC (International Cultural Exchange Center) After School Program in Millbrae in California.
What does your work aim to say?
The purpose of my art is to explore the inner universe, including both the bright side and the dark side. Exploration includes mental well-being, illness, meditation, subconscious and more aspects. The messages that we receive from the outside world can be overwhelming without even realizing. As much as we desire to bury the negative influences, they would most likely burst in other shapes in reality when unexpected, or transform into various symbols in our dreams. I manage to capture the essence and aesthetic of the collective symbols by using watercolor, oil painting, acrylic, and mixed media. I genuinely wish in my future to help others
with art therapy.
Who are your biggest influences?
I was stunned by the beauty of Disrupted Realism , the book Carolyn Meyer introduced to the class of Abstraction & Interpretation, which surveys the works of contemporary painters who are challenging and reshaping the tradition of realism. The author John Seed believes that we are “the most distracted society in the history of the world”. I feel strongly attracted to the impulses toward disruption and emotion in their artworks. I am most influenced by Mark Tennant, Alex Kanevsky, J. Louis, Lou Ros, Stanka Kordic and Malcolm T. Liepke. I am also a big fan of Gerhard Richer, who is a contemporary German master painter of almost all styles, including photorealism and abstract.
How do you cultivate a collector base?
Networking and attending art shows. Given the current situation, all the art shows have turned online. I am recently in an art show called THE COVID CREATIVE CONVENTION . I firmly believe that if you work hard enough, even the most difficult times can be colorful.
https://www.covidcreativeconvention.com/#/paintings-v