Meet visual artist from Manila, Stephie Tan

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m Stephie, a visual artist from Manila and half of .GIFKIDS visual story-tellers. We do illustration and (mostly 3D) animation, and we love to play with visual effects and other technical execution to enhance our storytelling. Aside from this, I am also an Art Director for an advertising agency.

 

Describe the city you’re living in and what it’s like to live there.

The exact area where I live in is a weird boundary between the main urban & business district and the south cities. It does provide some perks, like being able to go and explore both areas with just a single ride. This is by far more convenient than my old life wherein I need to cross the entirety of Manila just to get to work every single day.

 

The best thing about living in Manila is experiencing all of its textures — a plethora of sounds, architecture, food, and people. Definitely a wide tapestry at every turn and corner.

 

What is the best and worst thing about living in your city?

The best thing about living in Manila is experiencing all of its textures — a plethora of sounds, architecture, food, and people. Definitely a wide tapestry at every turn and corner.

 

The one thing I do dislike about my city is the horrid traffic and pollution.

 

Give us 3 words that describe what it’s like to be a creative in your city.

Perplex, Alive, Diverse

 

How did you start your career in art?

It’s funny how everything started really. I’ve always gravitated towards art and dreaming about being in the art community, but didn’t expect that 3D would be my ticket in. I started doing 3D when I was still studying advertising. I taught myself how to do it when I couldn’t understand what my animator friends would babble about.

 

.GIFKIDS was something me and my best friend started for the sole reason of making 3D-animated memes. We had a blast creating a lot of random and weird short clips that we’d post online. From there, we started getting invites to join gallery exhibits, do live projection visuals, and collabs with different artists.

 

At first, we would always be in disbelief, “are they sure they messaged the right people?” But at the same time get hyped and thankful for all of these avenues for us to express our art.

 

.GIFKIDS was something me and my best friend started for the sole reason of making 3D-animated memes. We had a blast creating a lot of random and weird short clips that we’d post online. From there, we started getting invites to join gallery exhibits, do live projection visuals, and collabs with different artists. At first, we would always be in disbelief, “are they sure they messaged the right people?” But at the same time get hyped and thankful for all of these avenues for us to express our art.

 

Were the people around you supportive of your decision on working as a creative?

Yeah! I’m very happy that I have a lot of supportive people around me. The amount of love that they give is incredible. Each of them helped not only with my artistic growth, but my growth as a person as well.

 

What are some goals and ambitions you have for your future work?

The ultimate goal would be to absorb and learn everything I could from my day job, since we also do all kinds of storytelling through commercials as well. I would love to apply all of these as I later on become full-time with .GIFKIDS

 

My goal with .GIFKIDS is to be able to connect and appeal to audiences on another level. I want them to see our work and have a complete experience from it and move past from just looking at it.

 

The ultimate goal would be to absorb and learn everything I could from my day job, since we also do all kinds of storytelling through commercials as well. I would love to apply all of these as I later on become full-time with .GIFKIDS. My goal with .GIFKIDS is to be able to connect and appeal to audiences on another level. I want them to see our work and have a complete experience from it and move past from just looking at it.

 

If you could collaborate with any person in the world who would it be?

There are so many artists handling different mediums that I would want to collaborate with, both locally and abroad. But on the top of my list right now would be, Ryoji Ikeda (audio-visual artist) or Chris Cunningham (video artist).

 

What are the biggest challenges you face in working as a creative?

Technology. Since we work heavily with computers and other tech for our 3D art and other executions, technical difficulties and errors are a constant in our process, in both creating the material or during the installation process. We try to put that into consideration in terms of work flow — we schedule for potential errors and prepare for any other trouble that could potentially pop out.

 

Also, since we tend to experiment in creating visuals with different tech, we also need to study and experiment with certain things before we push through with the idea. Like when we did an A.R. component for our illustrations, we had to study a little coding — how it works, and how to map our animations into the app.

 

Time is also a recurring thing that I have to battle when rendering our work, especially if a number of errors occur during our process. We always need to allot extra time for rendering to make sure we meet deadlines and openings. Also, since I have a day job, I have to manage my time and energy to make sure I give my 100 percent to both .GIFKIDS and my advertising job.

 

Diverse because everyone has their own thing – their own quirks, personalities, and what nots.

 

How would you describe the womxn around you?

Crazy and diverse – everyone is crazy in their own way, and I don’t mean that derogatorily. Women who have this crazy drive to work hard past 8hrs a day, women who have these crazy cool ideas, women who are crazy strong to stand for what they think is right. Diverse because everyone has their own thing – their own quirks, personalities, and what nots.

 

Were there any local female creatives that you looked up to when you were growing up?

Not a creative perse but, a strong female figure in the art community who I completely admire and look up to would be Yo Garcia. She used to be my art history teacher, and is one of the owners and directors of Pablo Gallery. The way she carries herself and the way she deals with adversity is really admirable and just leaves me in awe. She taught me a lot of things while I was still starting with my craft.

 

Experiment. Go through different mediums and different styles to find your niche. Not everyone is going to like or get what you make or do, but make sure you’re happy with your output because that’s more than enough.

 

Do you have any advice for other womxn who are aspiring to work in your field?

Shut out those negative thoughts and just go for it. Don’t be afraid to experiment and to fail. There will always be voices from your head and other people that’ll bring you down, but don’t let that hinder you from going for greater things. We are all here to experience things and to fail and learn from it.

 

Experiment. Go through different mediums and different styles to find your niche. Not everyone is going to like or get what you make or do, but make sure you’re happy with your output because that’s more than enough.

 

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What type of music do you like to listen to?

I listen to a lot of genres to be honest. When I’m in charge of music you’ll hear a random mix of anime theme songs, Grimes, Bring Me The Horizon, Twenty One Pilots, Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Bjork, Beegees, Daftpunk, Joji, Ja Rule, Notorious B.I.G, Glass Animals,  Honne, Eden, Daughter, Kevin Abstract, Hobo Johnson,  and so many others. I’m telling you – it’s a weird mix.

 

What’s your favorite local food spot?

There are a lot of options depending on what im craving for – there’s Goto Monster for Goto (rice porridge) and Filipino-flavored ice cream; The Filling Station for milkshakes; Regina’s for Saucy sisig; and Rada Sisig for creamy sisig. It really depends as each spot has their own hero.

Siqi Song asks: What is the best reaction you get when others see your work?

I have been asked a lot of times if I’m on drugs.

 

Felicia Chen asks: If you could choose a different career path, what would it be?

I always thought about being a literature teacher.

 

What question would you like us to ask the next artist?

Have you regret any career decision you’ve made? If yes, would you change it?

 

 

Photos courtesy of Stephie Tan