From a watercolor painting of two chipmunks sharing blueberries for pie in front of a big mushroom cottage to a bunch of bunnies slumbering after a dinner party, Jen Wang’s illustrations are full of wildlife whimsy.
Wang is an illustrator and the creative mind behind Amanita House Art. She says some of her first memories revolve around her parents giving her art supplies, whether it was her mom teaching her to draw fish using circles or her dad bringing home boxes of discarded paper from his school computer lab. She remembers stapling them into little books for Wang to fill out with drawings and stories of her own.
“My family moved from China to Detroit during that time,” she said. “As an immigrant family, my parents made do with very little back then, but my mom always made sure I had something to draw with and color on … I was lucky to be raised by someone who loved and appreciated their child’s funny little art so much.”
Beginning as early as kindergarten, Wang says other kids would ask her to draw them pictures. She moved from crayons to watercolor, then acrylics and oils — later attending College for Creative Studies for fine arts to continue her education
“This girl Gabrielle in first grade had an enormous collection of every possible crayola color, she sat next to me and would commission me, and paid in stubs of the fun neon colors,” Wang said.
Since then, she’s had illustrations published in books and painted murals in peoples’ homes and businesses, creating in her free time and work as a florist and picture framer as her profession.
“I get inspired from seeing new techniques or interesting subject matter, I will get stuck thinking about the different ways I can mix them with my own style and ideas,” Wang said. “I’ll get an idea and can’t stop thinking about it until it’s made. Seeing work by other artists, visiting the museum, reading, and experiencing nature are all good sources.”
Wang loves to create artwork that she knows she would have loved as a kid, primarily nature and animals. She says she has been working on a passion project over the last 10 years, her own children’s book, and is excited to get the gears moving on it.
