MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Winter / Spring 2018

WINTER/SPRING 2018 MLCM 61 When she was nine years old, Lan’s family moved to Canada. It was a sudden and surprising change of scenery. “We moved to Edmonton originally. The flight landed in Vancouver, so we caught a bus to Alberta and driving through the Rockies was unlike anything I had ever seen before, everything was so wild. It was almost kind of terrifying, but exhilarating, exciting.” Lan’s new Canadian art teachers supported her painting, and by the time she entered high school, they had elevated her curriculum to equal the first year of art school. “I was asked to consider how and why I painted.” This led to the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. After graduation, Lan returned to school and pursued 3D animation after a friend spoke highly of the paycheques. “I hated the projects,” she says, “but I liked the people. And I made a lot of money, but I wasn’t really happy… I was so burnt out and beat down from scraping by in Vancouver. Trying to pay my rent, I was so focussed on that. I left art school thinking I wouldn’t be an artist. I didn’t realize there were people living in their cars.” This is when she met Ben (her now partner) who lived in a Toyota Tercel with a tiny wood stove (yes, a subcompact car with a chimney). “I didn’t know there was a way to do it differently,” Lan says, “but of course there is.” Lan left the animation company she had worked at for seven years and moved to Squamish, picking up odd jobs around town and spending her free time running and climbing. The physical freedom created a space for Lan to gravitate back to painting. “I just like observing and taking in details and what’s going on around me—anything, a certain colour, or a certain shape of a building or a person’s face. Inspiration from tiny details, moments, all put together.” Lan’s relationship with Ben and his life of simplicity has helped her find her happy place, a place that allows for artistic growth. Not that it is always an easy path, but it is hers. “As a full-time artist, it’s been hard,” she admits. “I still enjoy painting, but it’s hard not to think about the money… You gotta live, after all.” “The struggle of balance,” she continues, “the underlying challenge to not overdo it. I have to forget that there will be an audience and remember just to paint the things I want to. Wake up and say ‘oh, I want to paint this.’ Because it’s the process that I have fun with, it’s not about the finished product. Sure, that’s evidence of the process, but I think it’s more about the experience of the process… I get kind of sad when a project is over. It’s like ‘oh what was the big deal, that wasn’t that hard.’” artbylanyao.com