Drawing rests at the core of Mei Mei Chang’s practice even when her work expands into inventive mixed media installations and soundscapes. She has been exploring the confluence of inner thought and feeling with external stimuli. During her residency at VisArts she initiated a community drawing project in addition to developing new mind-map paintings and drawings. Chang asked people to bring her an object that made them feel a strong emotion (anger, joy, fear, or sadness). She asked each person to tell her about the object, recorded their story, and made a drawing in response. Some people made a drawing along with Chang. Often the participants had little or no experience drawing, but when it came to making a visual expression of their story, the drawing just emerged. “This became a new way of making a drawing,” said Chang. “It was a real honor to listen to these incredible stories from a variety of lives. The objects, our conversations, and the drawings all became “the drawing,” a way of pulling a line out from an individual’s experience and tangling it into my experience.”

Mei Mei Chang received her Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Ohio University in 2002. As a mixed media and installation artist, Mei Mei explores various media to bridge her internal and external worlds. She is a lifelong student of the human psyche, fascinated by the mind’s ability to focus on details great and small without limits. Using her internal symbols, she creates rich visual images that are both highly personal and accessible to all.