Her digital canvas
Visual art teacher is passionate about art – whether in the classroom or through her online art galleries.
VISUAL art teacher Stacey Chiew has a long love affair with art.
“I love art. I breathe art,” says Chiew, who teaches at an international school in Kuala Lumpur.
At five, she doodled on the walls. Now, she lectures and also showcases her artworks.
“I would doodle on the walls of my grandparents’ very old colonial house in Kampar (Perak). Those drawings still exist today,” recounts Chiew, 49, who lived with her grandparents during her early childhood. At nine, she moved to Klang, Selangor, to live with her parents.
“As a child growing up, my imagination was an incredible driving force. Even today, my passion is to draw, paint and design,” she says, adding that she is still working to improve her artistic techniques and abilities.
Chiew, when talking about art processes, views herself more as a mixed media artist.
“I’m always on a quest to broaden my horizons. That means exposing myself to new ideas and communicating with artists and art lovers. I also love sharing my enthusiasm for art with others. One way to do that is through teaching art.”
To broaden her creative scope, Chiew also finds inspiration in nature, music and people.
“It’s nature that I adore and admire the most.”
Chiew has a graphic design diploma from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore (1986-1988) and a degree in fine arts from Radford University, Virginia, the United States (1989-1990).
While studying in Singapore, she worked as a freelance graphic designer for one-and-a-half years. After she graduated, she lectured in Saito Academy of Graphic Design in Petaling Jaya for a year before furthering her studies in the United States.
She also worked as a creative director for an advertising company in Jakarta for four years. In her leisure time, she also makes handmade jewellery, which has been featured in several local magazines.
In 2008, she discovered a collection of digital paintings on the Internet.
Chiew, noticing that digital art brought on endless possibilities, decided to give it a try.
“I didn’t sell my digital paintings in the beginning because they were very new in Malaysia. I wasn’t sure if local buyers would accept them,” recalls Chiew about her early days in the mixed media art scene.
Later on, she discovered art collectors in the United States who appreciated digital paintings and accepted the medium as part of fine art.
As an artist, Chiew has built a portfolio of work, readying up her output for art enthusiasts.
In 2015, she actively started to promote her artworks online, focusing on buyers in the US.
“Most buyers from my online gallery are Americans as the country has 25% of the world’s contemporary art collectors.”
Chiew even has two websites. One is her online gallery (staceychiewart.com) in the US, where the art company Fine Art America handles her career and sales. It produces museum quality prints, cards, phone cases and household products using her artwork.
Her other website is staceychiew. com, which she maintains and updates.
“Online art galleries offer a global reach for artists in a way that traditional galleries can’t,” says Chiew.
The artist’s creative world is limitless.
“I don’t limit myself to one style, one medium or one subject,” she says.
“I love incorporating both digital and traditional techniques in my work to enrich my creative process.”