About Maya
Hello, I am Maya, a watercolor artist currently based in New York City. I was born and raised in China, and educated in China, UK, and US.
Read on if you are interested in my story:
Why “Maya of All Trades”?
Apart from being a watercolor artist, I am also a professional translator (Chinese-English), scholar of translation studies, and educator. I am also passionate about culinary art, yoga, and wellness. Hence “Maya of All Trades”.
However, my seemingly eclectic career path is not a cacophony but rather a harmony with a unifying theme. I believe translation is an art of language and meaning, so I am an artist of both the left and right brains. At the same time, I consider the essence of watercolor painting to be translating experience and emotions into the visual language of color, value, and shape, so I am a translator of both linguistic and visual mediums.
My Art Journey
I started my art journey at 5 years old when I told my mom that I wanted to learn painting. As my mom taught in a local primary school, it was quite convenient for her to arrange “private tutoring” for me by asking her colleagues to teach me. From then on, I started learning—mostly having fun as a child—traditional Chinese watercolor, sketch, and eventually gouache. I drew or painted almost every day until the age of 12.
When I started secondary school, I stopped painting as I was pressured to pursue academics. I had great grades and made it into the top university in China. In college, I unknowingly channelled my pent-up artistic creativity into acting, directing, and photography. But for some reason, I almost completely stopped any artistic activities once I started my PhD, trying to focus all of my energy on becoming a scholar. As I reflect back now, the more distant I became from painting, the more anxiety and stress I suffered.
Like a lot of people, I started watercolor painting during the Covid-19 pandemic. But my story might be unique. Due to Covid policies and geopolitics, I was separated from my husband for 6 months after we had our wedding in Italy. I was able to get back to China while my husband was stuck in the States. Those were challenging months for me. I felt like life was completely out of my control, which was the biggest source of my debilitating anxiety, apprehension, and despair.
At that time, I found out on social media that a lot of people were learning watercolor as a meditative practice during lockdowns. I instantly fell in love with the luminosity and the sense of flow unique to watercolor painting. But more importantly, what drew me to watercolor is the fact that you can NOT have full control of the painting process. You need to learn to let the water, pigments, and paper do their own magic. I thought to myself, “this is the perfect medium for me, not because it is easy but because it is challenging”. I wanted to train myself to let go of the obsessive need for control, the non-stop regret about the past, and suffocating fear of the future. I had the gut instinct that watercolor will teach me how to be present and how to trust the process called life.
And I was right.
As the flowing colors diffuse and blend on the paper, I am grounded in the here and now in awe of my co-creation with Nature.
As an unintended effect occurs, I tell myself not to consider it a mistake but learn to appreciate it and work with it.