Dian Yao is a Financial Specialist III in the School of Medicine and Public Health’s Fiscal Affairs Transaction Team and has had multiple watercolor paintings and drawings published in Corpus Callosum, including Golden Dreams (Fall 2021), The Art of Still Life (Spring 2022), Fisherman’s Wharf (Fall 2022), Peking Opera (Fall 2023), and Life Cycle (Spring 2024).
Question 1: What drew you to drawing and watercolor painting and what is your background in it?
Yao: I dabbled in watercolor in college, but only started regularly painting with it in 2020. My most commonly used art medium is watercolor. I like the transparent and luminous characteristics of watercolor.
Question 2: What motivates you to create and what inspires your art?
Yao: The subjects of my art often include the things I experience in life. I photograph nature, buildings, or still life and produce works interpreted from those photos.
Question 3: Do you have any favorite artists or art that have influenced you and who/what are they?
Yao: My favorite artist is Joseph Zbukvic. The artist’s style is characterized by a general approach to detail, sometimes even using a single point as a structure, which gives his paintings a passionate yet accurate look. He is very attentive to lighting and the atmosphere of the picture, and he prefers to use gray tones when painting with watercolors. His visuals are not based on traditional understanding, but rather focused on conveying the real atmosphere of the entire picture, resulting in a vivid and impactful effect. This approach has had a profound influence on my own landscape paintings.
Question 4: How do you balance your art with the rest of responsibilities in your life and does art help you in those other arenas of your life?
Yao: I had a child last year, so I don’t get as much time to paint as I used to. Usually, I paint on weekend nights after my child goes to bed. Whenever I get the chance to paint, I cherish the time as it allows me to change my pace from work and childcare. I love immersing myself in my own world while listening to music and drawing simultaneously.
Question 5: What is next for your art (anything you are working on now or planning to)?
Yao: I plan to paint more Madison/Wisconsin landscape.
Question 6: Do you have any advice for anyone curious or interested in getting into art who hasn’t before?
Yao: Artistic creation should be a joyful experience. My suggestion is to boldly express your life through art and not be afraid of making mistakes. As Bob Ross said, “We don’t make mistakes, we have happy accidents.”