A delightful series by New York-based artist and illustrator Amber Ma. Originally from China, “Treasure Street” is inspired by the Kowloon Walled City (九龙城) in Hong Kong. YOu can see more images from the series below.
Amber Ma is a New York-based artist and illustrator, and she is originally from China.
She has been attracted to creating art and storytelling. She has a strong passion for drawing, which led her to pursue MFA in illustration as Visual Essay from School of Visual Arts, NY.
Amber is deeply interested in creating monsters and fantasy creatures, who she believes share the world with us while hiding in secret places.
She also has extensive experience in visualizing the story and visual creativity.
The inspirations for most of the projects are from her childhood experience( under the one-child-policy), Culture mystery story and human daily life. She believes people can tell a story and the story is from life. Everything, every moment, every element could be a good story.
Her working medium normally are watercolor, sumi-ink,pen and color pencil.
Amber Ma studied animation as an undergraduate in China and is now pursuing a master’s degree in illustration at the School of Visual Arts. Reflecting upon what had inspired her Drawing on Muji Catalogue project, she recalled a particular emotional state last summer. “Somehow I was very angry about the ideas that women should be conservative and should stay at home,” said Ma about her unabashed depiction of sexuality and womanhood in this project.
Additionally, she recalled a strong obsession with primitivism, as well as a longtime fascination with yōkai, supernatural monsters often the subject of Japanese woodblock prints. Juxtaposing art historical references—such as the one below depicting a contemporary version of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters—with everyday products, Ma’s odd sense of humor and playfulness confronts us, and make us think about our human desires.
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