(motor rumbles)
-I'm Stevie Shao. I'm a Seattle-based
and Seattle born-and-raised illustrator and muralist.
And I do a little bit of everything --
illustration, design stuff.
I love working on merch for, like, local businesses.
All my friends and things, I'll do,
like, canvas paintings, paintings on wood.
♪♪
During the pandemic, a lot of businesses
were concerned about break-ins, things like that.
So a lot of them are boarded up on the outside,
just covered in plywood.
And over the course of about a week,
Ballard had a bunch of artists come through
and paint those boards.
And for a lot of people, that was, like,
their first few murals.
For me, it was my first few murals --
like, painting at a large scale.
♪♪
-All of these small businesses were getting boarded up
and this beacon of hope in her color,
in her vibrancy, her patterns.
And we kind of started to see it all over town.
We fell in love with everything about her --
her drive, her work ethic,
her fierce loyalty to her own vision,
and the way that she translates that in different spaces
and per project kind of just blew us away.
And we were like, "If she'll have us,
this would be the dreamiest collaboration ever."
-After meeting and talking about it
and really getting to check out the space,
we decided that we wanted to cover,
like, almost every single surface with artwork.
All of the pieces from that show I made for the show.
-And she's kind of filled every little nook and cranny
in these really fun and surprising ways.
I mean, you're going down the stairs and it's like,
"Oh my God, there's another piece, and it's perfect,
and it needs to be there."
-I think the work that I enjoy making
has a lot to do with my heritage
and retelling those kind of stories
and integrating them with my world,
like, my universe, and my experience.
So I like them to have this mystical feel
and have a couple of passes --
you know, like, you have the first pass.
It's really bold, colorful, hopefully.
And, you know, you sort of keep noticing these things about it.
-I don't know that I would ever put Stevie,
especially at this point in her career
and in her life, into a category,
because I think she's going to blow all of those categories
out of the water.
And I mean, I keep telling every person that's buying,
"You should invest in this now
before she has her solo show at the Whitney." [ Laughs ]
♪♪
-I think Instagram, especially because
I started doing murals during the pandemic,
was a really big part of my journey,
just sharing everything.
A lot of people that I met after lockdown,
I had been in communication with
for a really long time over Instagram.
♪♪
I had been e-mailed by Murphy Gilson,
who works for U.W., about putting a mural
on this one wall in U district.
So over time and conversation, after doing a site visit,
I really wanted to just, like, blast the whole thing over.
-This mural is based on a Norwegian folktale
about these two brothers.
It is sort of, like, a Norse origin story.
I have a few color combinations
that I normally gravitate towards.
The contrast is really important between these colors,
so it normally ends up being sort of, like,
red and blue or black and orange.
I'm hoping that there's a vibrancy, like, a life
that is breathed into the storytelling behind the imagery
and sort of the care that is put into
painting something so large.
♪♪
Seeing my work out in the wild is really special to me,
I think, because I get to think about all the relationships
that I built that led up to that project happening
and seeing people interact with it
or, you know, enjoy it or just walk by it is is pretty special.
I think I would always find time to make art.
It's always been a huge part of my life
and a huge part of who I am.
♪♪
-Follow Stevie and her myriad of creative projects
on Instagram and at StevieShao.com.
♪♪
Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8
and anytime online at SeattleChannel.org/artzone.