Human Stories Australia : Nancy Liu, Melbourne

Nancy Liu was born in Taiwan, and came to Australia 7 years ago. Nancy used to major in Sociology and graphic design, but finally found her passion in art. She started drawing portraits as a busker in Melbourne, then built up her own business based on portraits. Later she found the love of Australian native plants and wildlife and continued to create artworks based on this motif.

This is Nancy's story as shared with Affluent Society: Art is my anchor

I am Nancy Liu, currently living in Melbourne. I am an artist and sometimes graphic designer. Most of my time I try to focus on creating my art. I only started being a full time artist from last year, and before that, I was a graphic designer for some years. Occasionally I will get invited to weddings or parties to do life portraits. Being an artist is extremely hard. One moment you might think you're a genius but the next moment you will feel your work suck so much. Then you'll feel it is actually okay. This kind of emotional swing is what makes it so hard. However, if you keep doing it for long enough, you will see the skills improve significantly. Everything you experience seems to become the fuel for your creation, and it is a highly rewarded feeling. I found that the more that I paint, the more I know about myself. You are what you paint, and you paint who you are. In a world that is constantly changing, it is very easy to lose one's way, and I found painting is my anchor, to keep me stable and safe.

My view of the world

Recently I feel worried about the increasing number of extremists. They are making this world more divided than it ever was before. We are afraid of the people who have different voices than us, and we are so sure that we cannot understand each other. However, this is not true. We can be together and understand each other even when we come from different parts of the world, speak different languages and have different social status and culture backgrounds, because we are human, we have empathy. Things that made me feel better are that, even during the hardest time, there are still people willing to take care of each other, and fight for the right things. That really shows us we are capable of being selfless and noble...

My advice to fellow readers

Be kind and thoughtful for your family, friends and even strangers. Communicate more, even when you cannot convince the others. It is good to have conversations.