Interview by Jimon

1- How would you describe Tianshu?  Romantic, sensitive and emphatic.

2- What first attracted you to the life of an artist?  How lucky I am to make my hobby into my career!

3- Where do you currently live and create?  Currently I live and work in New York. And I will receive my MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts this year, 2023.

4- Did you have any encouragement from your parents to pursue art?  Yes, I have a very supportive family. My father used to study art and he is very much into painting. We always talk about art.

5- Do you believe a person’s life story affects the way they see art?  This is the question I always think about while I paint. I definitely believe a person’s life experience, shapes their personality and preferences. And one’s memory affects their way to see, express and appreciate art.

6- What is the inspiration behind your paintings?  I have many sources of inspiration in terms of images which include photos on my phone, movies I watch, stage performances and etc. Also during the pandemic, I started a habit of researching images on social media. I look at images by others and pick parts of it to include into my paintings.

7- How do you know when to stop work on a painting or is it constantly ongoing? I think all artist struggle with this issue. I stop working when I fully express myself, or I start to get lost. And when I get lost, I’ll just hide the painting and go back to it when I feel I can.

8- When you are not painting where would someone find you?  My studio, galleries, museums, restaurants or home.

9- What advice would you give putative collectors?  First I would like to show my gratitude for their support. Then the only advice I think I can provide is don’t chase trends.

10-You attend SVA in New York, how has this influenced your process?  I was amazed by the diversity of everyone’s practice at SVA. My first semester was all about experience with materials and made some mix media works. However, I went back to oil painting in the second semester.

11-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration?  I go to galleries with my friends. That’s always a good source of learning and finding inspirations. Also, Instagram has become a big source of inspiration for my current works.

12-How much planning is involved in your paintings or are they purely spontaneous?  Most of the time I only start the painting with a rough sketch, have some ideas about the composition, rest of the painting are spontaneous.

13-When you are painting, do you paint for yourself or for an audience?  Myself.

14-If you could have one of your pieces at any museum in the world, where would it be?  Guggenheim

15- Name three things you can’t live without in your studio?  Some kind of liquor, snacks, sketchbooks

16-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table?  Peter Doig , Katherine Bradford, Francis Bacon

17-How would someone find you on Social media?  Instagram: tian_paint

18-Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art= Life
Food= Trader Joe’s
Sports= Never
Politics= Noise
Sex= Female
Luxury= Not me
Poor= Sleep
Rich= Happiness
God= A belief
Religion= Afterlife
Picasso= Blue and rose
Afterlife= Spiritual