I am a Chinese American writer and visual artist. I am Autistic. I don’t think my Autism is important in my practice yet, but I have thought about how to explore it more. I have nothing to hide. I may want to bring it up one day but I don’t speak for other people. I only speak for myself and my own life experience.
My drawings bounce between realism and comics. Some of my writing is about humor. Some of my art is sarcastic or cynical. I sometimes use censorship as a form of comedy. I like adult or dark humor, such as the Pearls Before Swine comics. I feel that some of my art is too profane or dark to share at NIAD, so that art remains private to me.
One of my major influences is the Chinese comic series Old Master Q. As a homage to Old Master Q, I include numbers in the top right of my cartoons. When I was younger Garfield was an inspiration to me; currently New Yorker cartoons and Silent Era film comedies are more often sources of interest. Some of my art is influenced by The Simpsons but that might be a mere coincidence.
Pencils are my primary material and painting is secondary in my practice. I like to use oil paints, watercolors, inks and pencils. Saturday art classes at Artworks in San Francisco got me hooked on oil painting when I was a teen.
I am interested in vintage ads and comics, which I look up on the internet as a resource. I like looking at things through a historical lens. Some social norms are the same and some are different. Sometimes I like to mock social norms that don’t age well.
The panels and shapes of my comics are important to me. Sometimes I’ve made circular or squiggly lined panels. I’ve eliminated comic speech bubbles because it makes things too convoluted on the page. I don’t usually show comic ‘action lines’ because I don’t like it in my visual language. I feel like ‘action lines’ waste space in a drawing’s composition. I’m interested in print making in regards to comic strips.
Some of the titles of my comics are not descriptive and some carry over from the comic strip’s story. Something that’s obvious but not too obvious so it doesn’t give away the whole story. Many of my stories and poems are just made up as I go along. I rarely have a whole story beforehand. I tend to write a story over a week, but they are more like extended jokes built up over time.
I am working on improving my creative writing skills. I also write essays and poetry. My poetry is my hobby and for close friends. I recently made a zine with jokes about emotions. Sometimes my zines come from me watching crazy things on the internet. I am currently interested in developing a short book for NIAD about the exploits of my neighborhood cat.
// Nathan’s available work //
exhibition history
Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD // Oakland Museum of California // May 2023
Rainbow Cat Picnic organized by Cynthia Ona Innis // NIAD Online Exhibition // March 2023
NIAD is for music lovers organized by Xiomara Rosales // NIAD Online Exhibition // December 2022
NIAD Ink: 35 Years of Prints organized by Andrés Cisneros-Galindo // Online Exhibition // December 2022
All That Is Solid Becomes Vapor ,organized by Emily Chao // NIAD Online Exhibition // October 2022
And Then Some… // NIAD Annex Exhibition // May 2022
DreamForms, curated by Lauren Ari and Julio Del Rio // NIAD Online Exhibition // March 2022
LENS, organized by the NIAD Exhibition Team // NIAD Windows Exhibition // January 2022
Holiday Gift Guide #6: Win Win 10 Sneak Preview, organized by Isabel Xilonen Ortiz // NIAD Online Exhibition // December 2021
Draw Your Letters, organized by Danny Floyd // NIAD Online Exhibition // Feb 2021
SPEED, organized by Patrick Reed // NIAD Online Exhibition // Jan 2021
Be Heard. Speak Up., organized by Fenwick & West // NIAD Online Exhibition // October 2020
Monochrome Markings, organized by Jennifer Gilbert // NIAD Online Exhibition // August 2020
Night Vision, organized by Christina Linden // NIAD Online Exhibition // March 2020
press
Quickest Flip Magazine (February 2022)