Suyao Tian

My name is Suyao Tian, I am living and working in the twin cities as an artist, designer and independent curator. I graduated in 2017 MFA with honors from MCAD. I am the owner and founder of my fashion brand Modern Cover™. I have a double BFA degree in fine art in USA and music education IN China, and an MFA in design from MCAD.

Painting is my own language to connect to the world, and my way to find and connect the similarities in our soul that we all share. I am a one-child-only generation of China-born in the 80s. Growing up, I hadn’t any siblings, I couldn’t have pets, and making friends was limited by rules, inhibited communication and confidence. As a child, I often caught all kinds of small bugs, put them in jars. I spoke to them, played with them, and they were the only listeners in my childhood. Now I still often talk to these creatures, but Instead of putting them in the jar, I put them into my creations. They become a symbol and language of my own.

I mainly use watercolor medium, but I also use different pen marks to define the details of each painting to give the audience layers and depth of the painting. For example, I use color pencil, ink marks and a variety of pen marks in each painting. It creates a very interesting micro and macro world.

My creative process is to extract the fragments of memory and separate, reorganize and integrate them. This process is my communication with them, and a process of self- release and expression. These peculiar images often appear in my memory, dreams and subconscious imaginations, so I use abstraction to catch a moment, feeling, and unclear form when they appear in my mind. I use bright colors to celebrate my freedom! The title is the moment in time when I start creating, these moments are transferred my mind through beauty or ugliness I put into my work, that becomes my identity to speak out to the world.

Art-A-Whirl

Art-A-Whirl Main Page

Suyao Tian is open on Saturday & Sunday of Art-A-Whirl weekend.