Mariza Liaw

Year of birth: 2006
Where do you live: Toronto, Canada
Your education: Experiential of Design Student, Sheridan College
Describe your art in three words: abstract, colourful, contemporary
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Could you share the journey that led you to become a multimedia artist, especially one  focused on photography?

My interest in photography began in 2018 when I started creating a series of photographs. This series focused on the idea of stripping away the familiar identities of everyday objects to reveal a new perspective. This later became my art style.

During my time in high school, I met a wonderful and inspiring teacher, Ms. Fabroa. She became the mentor I looked up to the most as she encouraged me to submit my work to galleries, take darkroom workshops outside of school, and introduced me to film photography. She even allowed me to further improve my artistic skills in the Arts and Culture Club, where, as a collective group, students would create artworks displayed in our school’s foyer.

Being her student meant that I was able to learn, network, and build a plan to, hopefully—fingers crossed—set sail for my dream career as a small business owner. It is a work in progress, but I plan to sell photographic prints to meet art collectors, admirers, and a community of artists who share a similar passion as I have.

You describe yourself as a “moy” artist. Can you elaborate on what this means to you and how it influences your work?

Moy, sometimes defined as ‘gentle,’ is a term I use to describe my artworks. It is contemporary yet abstract art, with a color palette of either monochromatic or complementary colors.

To create ‘Moy’ artworks, I focus on capturing ordinary objects while removing their ‘ordinariness.’ That’s what defines ‘Moy.’

The goal is to encourage viewers to sit, reflect on how the expression makes them feel, and share their perspectives on what they see.

How does your cultural background as a Taibu-Hakka Chinese artist shape your art?

As a Canadian Taibu-Hakka Chinese artist, I feel as though my culture and identity are slowly being forgotten. Growing up, when I would share my background with others, many people would begin to question what Hakka was. I have received a variety of responses, such as, “What is Hakka?” or “What is that?” or people talking amongst themselves with many puzzling expressions.

Hakka is a culture. It’s a language, and it’s a heritage. It may not be found in Google Translate, it cannot be read nor can it be written, but it can be spoken. It’s special to me, and finding other Hakka speakers gets me excited every time.

My grandpa would occasionally tell me stories about where my ancestors came from—the Taibu village. Apparently, depending on which village your ancestors are from, the language is spoken differently. It’s quite fascinating once you start looking into your roots.

Therefore, I’d like to say that I am a proud Canadian Hakka Chinese art student, who would like to remind artists of slowly dying languages to keep their heritage intact. Even if many people have forgotten such a language, my artwork and name will always express my existence and the roots of my culture.

Your work often has a monochromatic and soothing quality. What is the message or feeling you hope to convey to viewers through this style?

The message I hope to convey is a sense of wonder through abstraction. Since the photographs reflect my expression during the shoot, it is often overlooked. 

What role do your parents and grandparents play in your artistic journey, and how have they influenced your vision?

Growing up, my family was always supportive of most things I did in life. They would consistently remind me of how proud they were of me, no matter if it was the smallest achievement or a big opportunity like getting published in this magazine.

They never stopped supporting me as I kept changing my interests—from wanting to be a teacher, ballerina, photojournalist, news reporter, baker, photographer, graphic designer, and now, hopefully, a small business owner.

My grandma on my mom’s side fully influenced me with an eye for art, as she was the one who taught me how to draw during my childhood. She recently passed away in late July of this year and was known as the artist of the family, an amazing cook, an art collector, and an admirer of a few Chinese artists. She believed in me and supported me along my journey but was never able to make it to any of my recent milestones due to her diagnosis of dementia.

My grandpa never learned of my interest in photography, but to find out now that he had an eye for photography is amazing.

Do you have a particular process when approaching a new project, especially when working with multiple mediums?

When I begin a new project it tends to start off from quite a funny story. My ideas tend to be inspired from random moments. For example, for my pomegranate photograph it all began when I was craving for a pomegranate late at night. While I was taking the fruit apart, the vibrant, pinkish, reddish colour caught my eye as the juice gushed onto the cutting board. With the composition created from the miniature fruit juice puddles, it led me to succeed in creating many variations of reflection photographs of the fruit. In the end, my hunger for the fruit led to the creation of such a photograph.

Another approach on how I came to photograph the abstract image with a turquoise background and magenta blur all began when my grandma asked me to take pictures of her flowers from her garden. As many people are the type of person that likes to be recognized for their work, I present to you an abstract photograph, collaborated by my grandma, who planted the plants, and me, her granddaughter, who photographed it in my own art style.

I could go on with how I have proceeded with many of my past projects, but it generally occurs out of the blue.