Oblivious meets Jackie Huang

I met Jackie Huang when I was a Graduate Intern at USC's Career Planning and Placement Center (CPPC). While I was reviewing resumes and cover letters, Jackie was a student worker who was the graphic designer for the department.  When I needed a break from doing my intern work I would bug her and our friend Peter in their IT office. I have always been drawn to IT folks since Strawberry Farm Boy Mike is an IT junkie himself.  He gets embarrassed when pull basic IT fouls like not understanding how to upload things or figuring out certain operating systems.  

I'm sitting on the left and Jackie is in a USC hoodie on the right. Oh the good ol'CPPC days.

Years later I was at an "It's a Small World" themed art show at Gallery Nucleus and I recognized a familiar name. It turns out Jackie was showing her work in the show! Jackie had started doing intricate paper art that was truly astounding. It wasn't your average cutting up snowflakes arts and crafts. Jackie's creations were intricate works of art.

Now on our frequent trips to Disneyland, I make it a point to look out for something of hers at Wonder Gallery in Downtown Disney. She recently wrapped up a June residency there. I usually end up taking a picture of her work because it is crazy awesome! Without further ado here is Oblivious meets Jackie Huang!

An example of Jackie's beautiful work.

Name: Jackie Huang
Affiliations (arts org, fun things you do, etc) : Motivarti!  On the side, I founded an organized dedicated to helping young artists get into the animation industry.  Our biggest thing is running a 10-week mentorship program with industry professionals. www.motivarti.org

What's the one word you are guilty of using too much?
"Like".  Not in terms of a Facebook 'like', but the valley girl, 'like.'  I sometimes even wind up writing it in emails and have to go back to delete it. 

How did you end up doing what you are doing now?
While at USC studying film, I wound up getting an internship at DreamWorks Animation.  There, I discovered this amazing profession called, visual development (basically designing characters and backgrounds for animated films).  I was told by the artists there that going to art school would be the next best step.  

So I wound up going to Art Center College of Design to study illustration after USC.  About a year into the program, I took a class on making pop-ups and started making paper art then.  It took up until my last semester at Art Center to decide whether I wanted to try and work as a visual development artist or a paper artist.  I chose paper art and have never looked back since! 

Dogs or Cats, who wins? Why?
Dogs, hands down.  They don't hold grudges.  

What is the best part of any given day for you?
Napping!  The best part of working from home as a freelance artist is being able to take naps when you're tired.  That's the one thing you can't do at a full-time job. So it's a reminder of how happy I am to be on my own path. 

What is the last thing you searched for on google?
"The Hash House A Go Go".  Apparently it's a restaurant in Las Vegas and I was hoping they'd have one in LA.  Nope.  Sad. 

In a zombie apocalypse who would you want on your survival team?
Ugh.  Kill me now.  I don't think I'd want to live during a zombie apocalypse.  I'd rather be a zombie or dead...maybe the zombie a little more.

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What is a memorable project that you are working on or have worked on?
They're all memorable!  Some of my favorites are the pop-up proposal books I get to work on that guys commission me to make for them. It usually tells the story of how the couple meet, first date, first kiss, memories, and them popping the question at the end.  Another one would be both my Rapuznel pieces -"Rapunzel" & "Rapunzel 2.0" - they're both landmark pieces in my artistic development.  Interesting to see how my skills are developing! 

What is the best thing or meal you ever ate?
I probably have the world's biggest sweet tooth so it'd probably be Sprinkles Cupcakes.  It has the prefect ratio of cupcake to icing. If there parking wasn't so bad I'd probably go there all the time!  

Thank you again to Jackie! She's really rad and I completely understand her answer to the zombie question. Sometimes I think I could survive. Other times I'm like, "Just eat me up. I'll join you in your quest for brains." 


If you are an artist looking for a mentor I definitely recommend Motivarti! The program sounds really cool. I wish I could do it, but I cannot do anything visually that fits their criteria!

For all you lucky folks heading to San Diego Comic Con, Jackie will be at SDCC this year, so definitely check her out at Table F9!  She'll be selling prints, pop-ups, and some original artwork.

For more info on Jackie's work here are all her interwebs links:

website: http://jackiehuang.com/
blog: http://jackiehuangstudios.blogspot.com/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JackieHuangPaperArt
twitter: https://twitter.com/jackiehuangxu
etsy:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/jackiehuang