Mickey Chen

Art is a way to connect and disconnect with the whole world. There is a way to reach out to people by expressing my real self and be real me, which is to make ART. I can be 100% honest to myself and to others; I can show how I feel without too much of elaboration; I can decide and control in my own world. Sometimes words get in the way. Art helps me to meditate and observe. Art is no longer a “want-to-do”, but a “got-to-do” in life. I need it to support my own existence. There is no need for me to speak up, to shout and to scream out loud. Art shows me a way out in life, and it follows me everywhere I go. My work has given me a passport to my own world and to reach out others’ world.

Hui-ju Chen (Mickey) graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago major in Fine Arts and the University of Hertfordshire in Creative Arts. Even though she has not been using art and design as her main profession, she has kept up her passion of making art until today. She always finds time to create various styles of work. It is interesting to see how her work has varied from photography to acrylic painting to mixed-media to collage. She hopes to keep being experimental because she believes that, in the art world, there are no real errors but rather different thoughts and processes with different outcomes. Without experimentation, she feels, art is not art. She gets inspiration from different aspects of life. She always hopes to learn and create different kinds of work by making use of her own different life experiences.