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Wennie Huang – the Quintessential Teaching Artist

In much of the world, public attitudes toward the teaching profession are far better than in the US. Teachers are revered and enjoy trust, respect, high-status and a strong cultural emphasis on the importance of education. It is detrimentally different in the US. Here, the teachers are too often underfunded, disparaged and disrespected, as evidenced by one of the most moronic quotes to ever make it into popular culture:

The Brooklyn based Wennie Huang earned a Masters in Fine Arts degree in printmaking at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Both schools extended full merit scholarships. She also took courses at Pratt in Venice, Italy at the University à Di Baluarte; and, at the Hogeskool vor de Kunsten, in Amsterdam, Holland. She now proudly makes her living teaching art. Even though she is artistically on a master level, the financially oriented arts education system today is not geared to offering full-time, tenured positions, as it was usual in past decades.

The artist had emancipated herself from the art business to explore her own artistic muses and creativity. She explained, “My business model is to be independent from galleries. I have worked with galleries before and found it limiting. Teaching allows me the freedom to do the art that I want without dependency on the commercial aspect. I practice and teach many types of art: Landscapes, watercolor, pastels, work on paper. I explore many forms – biomorphic, 3D design. Artistic diversity is my genuine self. I feel whole when I do it all. The art market does not like that. They want one category, one direction. I don’t need that.”

It is the result of hard work and perseverance, “Art has kept me calm and occupied since the time when my mom put me in a highchair and gave me a paper and pencil. I drew obsessively to the point where I used so much paper that my dad brought home rolls of newsprint that my mom cut into smaller pieces for me. I was advanced in drawing by the time I entered school and for all of my life I was referred to as an artist. For a time, I thought that I wanted to do other things, like become a National Geographic photographer, but eventually it was clear to me that, yes, I am a visual artist.” While developing solid artistic skills, she also excelled academically, with a strong foundation in mathematics. As with many artists, however, there was existentialist struggle. Things were not easy and external obstacles had to be overcome. 

I was conscious of being Asian, and I feel this insecurity now more than ever, with the anti-Asian sentiments, the hate attacks. Right now, I feel in danger.​ Especially, as a woman, I am always aware and careful.” She went on, “I work really hard. I am a survivor. I know what makes me valuable. I don’t give up.”

Institutional racism affected her deeply. She was the top of her high school class and excelled academically, but astonishingly, the very year that she would have been her class valedictorian, the school declared that in that particular year there would be no valedictorian. There

was one the year before and the year after, but when a bright young Chinese American girl achieved the honor, it was denied. Wennie Huang went on with her life. She had a full scholarship to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and she was ready to get out of the small-minded small town to make her success in the big city. Yet, she had important mentors in high school. She remembered, “The majority of my teachers in high school were supportive of me, and that had it not been for my three high school art teachers, I may not have attended art school or become an artist. They truly guided me through my young adulthood and into college and I owe them, deeply, for believing in me and continuing to guide me, and in fact, they are the inspiration for my professional pursuits.” 

Today, she channeled this outrage in her art, for example her poignant mixed media piece “Two Eyes.” In this self-portrait the artist repeats the racist gesture that she and other people of southeast Asian heritage have often been subjected to, the pulled slant-eye, the non-verbal “n-word” for Asians. “It is me making the face that others made to me back to them. It was empowering. Instead of being scared or ashamed, I am reflecting it back.” Wennie Huang overcame all that. “I have no regrets. I am privileged to earn a living doing what I love in the best city in the world. Someone once taught me: ‘Go where the door opens’ and I have lived by that for all of my life. …I have control over my own attitude, and I know that I will make things work out.”

Her life’s work as an artist equals her prowess as a teacher. She has exhibited extensively to critical acclaim and she is a frequent lecturer. Wennie Huang’s works are beautiful, wondrous and filled with the natural curiosity that guides her artistic direction, “I am curious. That’s what drives me. I allow my curiosity to guide me. I am wondering and questioning constantly. That’s what keeps me interested. I am a little bit childlike in my curiosity. That’s why I like Brooklyn… Art is satisfying, but I am never completely satisfied. It always leads to more. Art is the only way that I can bring freely all of my interests together.”