Behind the Murals
Previously Jocelyn Tsaih’s “Quarantine Scenes” comic series have been featured here, but another side of this Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist’s work can be seen in her vibrant and whimsical murals where her signature faceless and amorphous figures also appear. Below, she shares her journey with mural painting with us.
I started making murals a few years ago thanks to my job on the Art & Graphics team at WeWork. Translating a design or illustration into a large-scale piece of artwork is really rewarding even though it can also be tedious. I always try to consider the context of the environment that the artwork is living in since it will be in a physical space. I usually start with a loose sketch within the dimensions or proportions of the wall. After cleaning up the sketch, I begin to choose the color palette for the mural. To transfer the image onto the wall, I usually use a projector so I can trace the outline of the drawing with a pencil. There's also times when I've had to use the gridding method instead of a projector, either because of lighting (i.e. starting during the day while being outdoors) or due to the positioning of the wall within a space.
Chinatown Mural
A friend of mine, Adam Lucas, invited me to paint a wall that he manages in Chinatown, New York. When we first met, I had already moved to Oakland from New York, but we learned that we had lived in the same neighborhood while I was still in New York. After realizing that I had spent some time in Chinatown and how much that neighborhood meant to me, he asked me to create a mural on the corner of Division St. and Orchard St. I wanted to paint something that Chinatown residents could relate to, which was challenging because my work tends to be more abstract. Food was the obvious solution in tying my work and the Chinatown culture together!
Facebook Mural
This mural was created for the Facebook Artist in Residence program. I wanted to create something that reflected on my move from New York to California. While I did have a hard time adjusting to the change, there were a lot of positives of the move that I wanted to focus on. Nature, and the joy it brought me, was a big part of that, which translated into the imagery that I ended up with.
Bright Walls Mural
This is probably my tallest mural yet! I painted this mural for the first Bright Walls Mural Festival event in Jackson, Michigan. Since it was so high up, I wanted to play with the idea of the artwork reaching the sky. It was a fun opportunity to paint my figure really large, and I wanted it to look at peace while looking up towards the sky and clouds. Halfway through painting this mural, there was a torrential downpour that unfortunately washed away a big chunk of my mural. Thankfully it didn't take too long to repaint since my design was pretty simple. It was definitely an unforeseen obstacle but still an amazing experience overall.
Text and Photography by Jocelyn Tsaih