CREATIVE PRACTICE
Mandarin–English T/I Johnny Yi Wang recently submitted some digitally drawn images to In Touch, and we think these two fit really well into our Summer issue! We asked Johnny to tell us more about how he creates his images, and what inspired these two.
The imagination is sparked in a split second …
Creative drawing has been my passion for many years, and always will be. I use the computer software app Sketchbook to draw/paint in my spare time.
The drawing Ice Cream stemmed from a scene I saw when I visited the Gold Coast, Queensland.
The drawing Mum, children, a dog and a bird was also inspired by a glimpsed scene, when I saw beauty in the combination of the people, the dog and an ibis flying by (I’m still working on this drawing).
All my drawings stem from beautiful details of our daily lives. The imagination is sparked in a split second – this can easily be missed, and won’t be repeated again in this busy world … so when I see a scene that inspires me, I memorise it so I can recreate it later. Of course, I remember some parts better than others, so in order to complete each drawing I have to use my imagination.
These drawings both fit into the theme ‘A Mother’s Day’ – the theme of a good mum will be never out of date!
I have two tasks that I want to complete in the coming years: one is to sharpen my translating and interpreting skills; the other is to improve my drawing skills.
Johnny Yi Wang was born in Beijing, China in the late 1950s, and emigrated to Australia in the 1990s. He holds two master’s degrees – one in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) from UTS, Sydney and another in T&I from the University of Queensland – and has been working as a federal government contractor for sixteen years.
Callout for creative works
This isn’t the first time we’ve published members’ visual artworks.
Editorial Committee member Tania Pineda-Stewart has conceived and commissioned a couple of cartoons drawing on common themes in T&I, and our Winter 2020 included two drawings, as well as a poem, by Swahili–English T/I Jean Burke. Much of Jean’s work is with refugees, and she described how her creative activities help her to express what it’s like to work with traumatised people and in stressful situations.
Johnny’s email has prompted us to consider how members’ artworks could be more frequently included in In Touch. We’re hoping to build up a bank of images that can be included in upcoming issues. Whether your work is directly related to your T&I work or not, if you have images that you’ve created and you would like to submit them for consideration, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us (editors Hayley and Helen).
