Hi, I’m Shirley. I’m an illustrator and designer who draws irreverent, sometimes ugly pictures for editorial, music and apparel. On my off time, I print risographs, DJ for my plants, shop for silly tattoos, eat báhn mìs and mentally relive every cringe thing I have ever done.
WHAT DID YOU GET IN TROUBLE FOR AS A KID? ANYTHING ADULTS TOLD YOU TO AVOID THAT’S ACTUALLY A BIG PART OF YOUR LIFE NOW?
I was a little bit of an ungovernable demon child in my adolescence, but then I grew up and learned empathy and conscientiousness, so that spirit has been exorcised from me. Now into adulthood, I like to excavate a nugget of who that unhinged child was to make art with a dark sense of humor.
ANY PERSON WHO REALLY HELPED YOU IN YOUR AWESOME ARTISTIC JOURNEY?
I don’t really have people in my family who pursued anything in the creative field. my parents are Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants and I think the concept felt like this amorphous, unknowable, unsafe destiny. Despite that, my parents never explicitly opposed what I did with my life. And I had sisters who were very supportive, sometimes buying me art supplies, at times helping me pay for art school (even though they didn’t have a lot of money), sharing any opportunities that they heard about. So I am very grateful to have them as a support system.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DRAW AS A CHILD? WHY DID THAT LODGE IN YOUR HEAD?
I honestly did not draw a whole lot as a kid. But I’ve always been a sucker for a good weird story. One of my favorite books as a kid was The Stinky Cheese Man, I loved watching Celebrity Death Match whenever I got to a cousin’s house with cable, and the scene with the blue alien singing opera in The Fifth Element haunts me to this day. The world-building and boundless imagination in these stories are what really attracted me to a creative pursuit.
WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST ART INSPIRATION? THIS MAY NOT BE VISUAL. LIKE, ANYTHING!
I think having a sense of humor is really important to me. So I try to find something funny about whatever, the most mundane things or what’s going on in the news, and kind of explore that. Sometimes it's nice to remember life is short, and could possibly be a big cosmic joke, make sure you have a good time.
