As a second-generation Chinese only-child born in Canada, raised in the deep South but now residing in the Pacific Northwest, Amy Hsieh learned a thing or two about imposter syndrome. She enjoyed artistic endeavours from a young age but was always encouraged to focus on more academic studies by her family. Her tiger mother would always say, “A is for Amy”, whenever school grades were discussed, and from this, Amy learned how to live under constraint while increasingly bending the rules.
Though there were numerous attempts to pursue art as a career, including offers of admission to art schools, she was prohibited from accepting any and eventually conformed to her family’s wishes by studying Business. This led to a Bachelor of Arts in Management Information Systems at the University of Washington in Seattle, after which a career of corporate servitude ensued. Despite her pursuit of art as an extra-curricular activity through the next two decades, the addiction to a tech salary kept her in golden handcuffs.
Addiction rarely ends well, and the combination of an unfulfilling career mixed with an ever-growing feeling of imposter syndrome led Amy into a downward spiral of a clinical depression. Along her winding road to recovery, she seized the opportunity of the pandemic’s remote culture to heal through art by enrolling in the online Master of Arts in Jewelry and Metal Arts program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Amy brings her knack for precision and professionalism to her art. She favours delicate designs that conform to the body in concept-driven pieces of sculptural jewellery. Fashioned mostly in metal, her history-inspired designs lean towards aesthetic juxtaposition and feature multiple configurations to suit the wearer’s circumstances or occasion.
Amongst her artistic inspirations are Elsa Shiaparelli and Gijs Bakker; Amy also showcases fringe concepts and pushes the boundaries of what is considered jewellery. In her collection BOUND, motifs of constraint are echoed throughout, representing the bondage that people carry, often concealed, throughout their day-to-day lives.
Amy currently resides in Seattle with her partner and their three rescue dogs that she tiger-moms. History repeats itself..
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