- Jenie Gao: Art to me is the means to
create a record
of what exists and
allow it to persist in the future.
And it is also a way for us to envision and create
that which does not exist yet.
My name is Jenie Gao,
and I'm a full-time artist and entrepreneur
based in Madison, Wisconsin.
My earliest memory of wanting to be an artist
was from when I was three years old.
I remember just having a very distinct
and visceral feeling that art was something I was good at
and was a way that I could tell stories.
I was always drawing
and I was always looking to record information
and also imagine things that didn't exist.
Nobody else in my family was an artist.
My parents immigrated here.
My mom is Taiwanese.
My dad was from China, and, you know, for them,
the way that they had to make it here
was by starting a business,
starting a takeout restaurant in Downtown Kansas City.
And there are many ways
in which the arts were discouraged in
in my immediate environment.
And, in a way, it became something that very early on
I felt the need to fight for,
which, funnily enough, hasn't changed.
It's continued to be something that I've,
I felt a deep need to fight for.
And particularly, with the arts
and immigrant communities and BIPOC communities,
if you cannot get recognition and respect
via the skin that you're in,
at the very least you
can get respect for the profession that you're in.
And unfortunately, that's not the way that the arts are seen
in the society we currently live in.
I work with a range of media.
My foundation is in printmaking and, and in drawing.
And since then, I've expanded
to doing murals and public artworks
and installations,
and social practice pieces.
But I'd say, like, as far as, like, what defines my work
in terms of just mark making and aesthetic,
I'd say that precision
and a willingness to commit to a decision
is evident in what I do.
[inquisitive music]
So, the piece that I'm working on right now
is entitled "The Year of the Metal Ox."
In the great race that determined the order
of the animals in the original Chinese Zodiac,
the rat got first place
because it hitched a ride on the ox's head
and jumped off at the end, at the finish line.
Well, what if the ox was actually supposed to be first?
Like, you know, she was the one leading the race,
and the rat couldn't cross the river,
and she offered him a ride.
And what if she's actually first?
And what if the steady and reliable ox,
which just repeatedly shows up and does the work,
is the one that's actually leading us to new beginnings?
So that's, that's the concept behind this mural.
It'll be located in Milwaukee.
I started my career in Wisconsin
in the neighborhood that this mural is going in.
I used to teach in the Milwaukee Public School District
at a school, less than a ten-minute drive away from,
from where this mural will be.
And so, there's a sense of fulfillment that comes
with being able to give this image
to a place where I really created my foundation.
I think that my tendency,
just with my personality and life experiences,
is just always want to get the next thing done.
I am very much someone who keeps track
of to-do lists and milestones,
and I'm fixated on getting things done.
But if I were to take a step back and, and reflect
on what it is that actually gives me the meaning
to motivate me to want to get things done,
it is just that blindness
to keep showing up and paying attention.
Yeah.
Out of an estimated 8.7 million animal species on the planet,
we are the only ones
that actively record our images and information,
and not even just about ourselves,
but of the world around us.
And it's an inimitable form of expression for humanity,
and that we've been here.