Felicia Chiao is a proud homebody. Spending time alone in her apartment in San Francisco, the artist often reflects on her inner life through her Copic marker drawings, which she then shares to the nearly 700,000 people that follow her on Instagram. Her comment section is filled with people remarking “Same” or “I literally feel this way right now.” From the hideout of her bedroom,Chiao is never truly alone.
The ex-industrial designer recently opened a solo exhibition with Harman Projects in New York City all about being a homebody—the peace, the quiet, the loneliness. Before the exhibition opened, Chiao spoke with Harman Projects about living alone, if internet fame has changed her, and if we should expect a sequel to her Daniel Kwan collaboration.
Harman Projects: You titled this exhibition Homebody, thinking about the benefits and difficulties of living a solitary life. To start, what are the benefits and difficulties of being someone who can spend a lot of time at home? Have you learned anything about yourself through this shift into a solitary life?
Felicia Chiao: I’ve been introverted my whole life, so living alone and working alone has been the best thing to ever happen to me. I am a much nicer person for it. I obviously still have to work with other people occasionally and I do have lovely friends, but I have full control of my life and what I want to do day to day. I wake up after I have slept enough, I can play the same song out loud on repeat without bothering anyone, I have time to go on long walks every day, and it’s all on my own schedule. One downside at the moment is that I work out of my bedroom so I stay in the same room almost all day. The urge to lay down is constant.
Any negative emotions I experience are usually from outside forces, so holing up at home with just myself to deal with has been very peaceful. As I get older though, I do realize it’s harder to get sick or have an injury when you’re alone. Sometimes when I really can't get a jar open, I do wonder if it would be beneficial to get a boyfriend. But otherwise, I’m self sufficient.
You also seem to enjoy doing interior scenes, adding little easter eggs and details in the nooks and crannies of your works. Where do you think you pick that up from? Did you grow up in a house with lots of trinkets or family treasures?
There’s a lot of joy to be found in little things. My sister and I were the kids who collected rocks and cool shaped sticks; one time we found a hummingbird skeleton that was cleaned out by ants and we added that to our collection of bits and bobs. I’m not sure any of that is worthy of “family treasure” status but it did help to fuel my imagination as a kid. I am not exactly a minimalist or a maximalist, but having little things that bring me joy all around the house is a lovely feeling.
You mentioned that you loved Richard Scarry as a kid, and that his illustrations—particularly his additions of gold bugs—may be one of the influences of your packed interiors. When you’re making an interior scene, do you add anything hoping someone might fixate on them?
I don’t draw with the audience in mind so there’s nothing intentionally added for the “gold bug” experience, but I have had people tell me they will sit with their kids and look for familiar items in my drawings. Some very common items are things like clocks, mugs, and oranges. I suspect my little pink worm character is a nice surprise here and there. When the little black bean character is missing from a drawing people will ask what happened to it.
The online community that you have built is huge—not only in numbers, but your followers have full conversations with each other in the comments, finding community amid an isolating algorithm. I know you started drawing not knowing that others would see themselves in your work. Do you feel like this level of popularity has changed how you approach a drawing or, now, watercolor? Or is it still the same as when you were filling a Moleskin and working a day job?
I don’t think internet popularity has changed my approach to drawing, but maybe I need to do some earnest self reflection. This show has some of my first horizontal pieces because I had been avoiding the format because they do not post so well online (which is really silly).
I am really bad at being told what to do, so I think it keeps me honest to only make work that I really want to make. I do sometimes get a bit sad when a drawing I love doesn’t perform well online, but it doesn’t stop me from making or posting them.
The drawings and paintings are very honest, vulnerable. As your work has reached larger and larger audiences, do you ever hold back; are there works that you really do keep for just yourself?
As far as honesty and vulnerability goes, I thought I was being discreet with my feelings in my drawings. It turns out I was not. It is crazy to see so many people connecting with my work in one way or another. There is a quote that says something along the lines of “the most personal is the most universal.” It’s a nice reminder to know that we as humans all go through similar emotions—some people just need some help understanding them.
There are some very personal drawings that I keep for myself, but now that [Paragon is] publishing my sketchbooks, people will see them. I don’t worry much about what strangers on the internet will think, but sometimes I do get a bit nervous about people close to me seeing them… or my therapist.
Most of the works in Homebody focus on an avatar and their dark anxiety pet inside the home. But there are a couple of anomalies: The Gatekeeper, Circle Vases, Golden Hour. Can you contextualize these works in the exhibition? Did they begin from a different mental place?
I find the interior pieces are more reflective, kind of outside-looking-in, while the other drawings are more of a direct response to an emotion or a certain technical interest in the moment. When I feel overwhelmed I tend to draw scales because they feel very meditative, so that’s how a piece like Golden Hour came about. For Gatekeeper, I was feeling a lot of irritation with unrelated things and wanted to test out my new color pencil set at the same time. I did hesitate to add these pieces to the show since they did not fit into the theme as well. But the feelings that produced these works were felt in a time where I was working on pieces for the show, so I think they belong just as much as the rest.
How do you push yourself to experiment? I know you’re using watercolor paintings and mixing media, which is new for you. But in terms of content, are there certain processes or thought exercises you use to push yourself to experiment?
I’m not sure I intentionally push myself to experiment or grow or anything. I just draw a lot and I have a lot of curiosity. The leap into watercolor only happened because Copic markers are not archival, so I made the switch for gallery works so the pieces would last. I still use Copic markers for personal work, but I try to only do watercolor for originals now. I was a bit resistant to watercolor at first but after getting more comfortable with it, the process inspires new types of pieces.
I am fortunate that I don’t struggle to produce new ideas—they just show up in my head and bounce around until I can get them out. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about meaning or concepts but that’s not to say there aren’t any.
The opening of Homebody will also mark the public launch of Sketchbook 5, the second sketchbook of yours to be fully reproduced by Paragon Books. I know people often ask if Sketchbooks 1 - 4 are coming out and the answer is: no. But, now that you have several books under your belt, including the well known collaboration with A24 and Daniel Kwan 24 Minutes to Bedtime!, are you thinking about any other future books?
Haha yes, Sketchbooks 1 - 4 will never be published but I am aiming to have Sketchbook 7 done for next year. I’m not thinking seriously about any other books at the moment but I did see a very simple and silly children’s book at my local library and thought “maybe I can do this”. We’ll see if an idea shows up in the future.
No graphic novels?
I don’t have much of an interest in graphic novels at the moment. I really like being able to complete a piece and move on—books take time. If someone cool reaches out in the future for a collaboration, like Dan Kwan did, maybe I could be open to it!
Finally, a question about the future. I know becoming a full time artist and illustrator was not your plan. Knowing that life has many twists and turns, I still wonder if there are any dream projects or collaborations you’d love to realize?
I dream of getting rich enough to survive the fall of social media and retreat into obscurity to just make art for me… until then I’m happy where I am at. Being able to make the art I want to AND make a living off of it is truly a privilege and if this is the best it gets, that’s ok with me.
That being said, I have had the pleasure of collaborating with friends who are doing very cool things and I wouldn’t mind more of that. My director friend Sean Wang put out a short film and a feature length film recently and I was happy to make art for both releases. It was really cool to see my art show up on Disney+ (check out Nai Nai & Wai Po) as well as in theaters everywhere for DiDi. If I can support my friends with my skills, that’s super cool.
Felicia Chiao’s solo exhibition Homebody is open at Harman Projects NYC at 54 Ludlow St. through September 28th, 2024
