What Drives Jing Wang’s Art and Its Deep Connection to Identity
Jing Wang is an award-winning artist and UX designer who combines her love for art and design to explore deeper themes of identity, culture, and human connection. In this interview, Jing opens up about her creative journey, how her background in architecture and design shaped her art, and what inspires her work. She shares the story behind her Pattern Leap series and how she uses art to make sense of the fast-changing, AI-driven world. Through her thoughtful answers, we glimpse how art helps her reflect on life and encourages others to do the same.
Jing Wang is a global award-winning UX designer, an artist, a strategist, and a critical thinker. She is also a former architectural designer. Her extensive experience in design, art, and strategy spans diverse fields, ranging from global corporations to startups. 2024 was a fruitful year for Jing Wang. She won multiple prestigious design awards across UX design, product design, service design, and strategy design fields, and her artworks were recognized and exhibited globally.
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
My name is Jing Wang. I am an artist, a UX designer, a strategist, and a critical thinker, currently living in San Francisco. I am also a former architectural designer. 2016 I obtained a Master of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology. After a few years of design practice, I switched to the UX and product design field and obtained a Master of Design in Interaction Design from California College of the Arts. My experience spans diverse fields, from art and design to strategy and problem-solving. In 2024, I obtained multiple prestigious international awards in both the design and art fields, including but not limited to Muse Design Awards, London Design Awards, Titan Business Awards, Emerging Woman Artist Awards, etc., and both my artworks and design were exhibited and published globally. In terms of thinking, I believe that art and design can mutually empower and nourish each other. Especially art can uncover hidden feelings from the subconscious and intuitively bring them to light, which triggers awareness of the things we have not paid enough attention to.
This awareness is extremely important, because only when we are aware will we explore and think and make corresponding responses and changes. To me, art is more than just an expression—it is a way of thinking. It is a method of uncovering the overlooked yet essential aspects of our subconscious and lives, a way to seamlessly integrate diverse thinking abilities and enable unrestricted reflections and exploration with immediate expression, a medium that sparks moments of inspiration and sudden realization. In essence, art is thinking about itself. So, I maintain an open mindset and continuously experiment. I believe the purpose of experimentation is to keep exploring and discovering. It can involve studying people’s attitudes to gain insight into collective or individual consciousness, creating collisions and juxtapositions to spark imagination, immersing oneself in different perspectives to uncover hidden emotions for deeper reflection, etc. Compared to design, experimentation in art is freer and broader. In my artworks, it can serve as the concept and starting point of artistic creation, as well as the process and final outcomes.
In the AI era, where creativity is faster, easier, yet sometimes meaningless, cultural and historical experiences will be more vital than ever.
Jing Wang
2. What is your creative process like from start to finish?
My creative approach varies depending on different artistic needs, inspirations, and environments. Sometimes, I create directly based on inspiration or personal reflections; others, my work is intertwined with poetry. Some pieces emerge from design-related processes or are developed parallel to design projects. The specifics of my creative process also differ from one work to another. However, the core principle remains the same—thought always precedes artistic creation.
Art, in turn, serves as a means to deepen and further explore those thoughts and emotions at a particular stage. Take my Pattern Leap visual art series, which was awarded the Emerging Woman Artist Award and featured in the book Women Artists on the Rise, as an example. Through this series, I use art to explore the relationship between culture, cities, communities, and individuals in the AI era. I sketch my thoughts using a pencil or iPad, often producing multiple drafts. Then, I select the sketch that resonates with me the most and choose the artistic medium and creative method that best suits it. Since I used city maps as the foundation for the Pattern Leap Artwork Series, I employed digital art to interpret them.
This choice lets the audience perceive the “map” element more easily. Throughout the art creation process, I frequently detach from the creator’s perspective and shift into the role of a city resident, a visitor, or a neutral third-party observer. This allows me to rethink and refine the artwork by uncovering subtle, hidden emotions and the underlying causes of switching roles and perspectives. As a result, the Pattern Leap Artwork Series embraces abstraction—not only does it depict the cultural fabric of a city, but it also utilizes the streets and patterns to form abstract human faces and silhouettes. Their expressions and movements are filled with metaphor and symbolism, encouraging the audience to explore deeper and reflect.
3. Where do you find inspiration for your artwork?
Most of my inspiration comes from reflections on the world, the times we live in, and life itself. Of course, there are also moments of sudden realization—certain scenes, events, or words that spark insight. Some inspiration arises from shifting perspectives and stepping into different roles, breaking conventional narratives and ways of thinking to view things from fresh angles—this process is truly fascinating. Additionally, as a UX designer, some of my inspiration stems from deep investigations into products and user pain points. These insights naturally touch upon themes of human nature, collective consciousness, modernity, and globalization, nourishing my art and UX practices. Take my Pattern Leap Artwork Series, for example. It originally stemmed from my reflections on my UX design project, Patten Leap: How can we effectively cultivate cultural awareness for the public mass in their everyday life? This question led me to explore deeper themes, such as individual anxiety in the AI era, identity, collective memory, and emotional connections to cities.
These explorations are abstractly expressed throughout my Pattern Leap artworks. I maintain an open mindset during the creative process and frequently shift to different perspectives to observe and uncover new insights. As part of this exploration, I have also written poetry—not only as a form of artistic expression but also as a method of experimentation. By observing readers’ reactions, emotional states, and responses, I rethought the subconscious and feelings people experience in the AI era, which helped me gain fresh inspiration for my work. To me, art, design, and poetry can empower one another, including how they generate inspiration. Also, the creative process is a collision of ideas and emotions, making me truly enjoy this ever-evolving, inspirational journey.
4. Can you tell us about a particular piece of art that holds special meaning for you?
I believe the entire Pattern Leap Artwork Series and Pattern Leap UX Design hold a special and significant meaning for me. Last year, Pattern Leap artworks and UX designs were recognized and exhibited at different exhibitions worldwide. This recognition affirms my approach to integrating art and design through a mutually empowering thinking process, and it is also a validation of my artistic and design philosophy. I have always believed that thinking must come before the work itself. The depth of thought behind a work determines its value, scalability, exploratory nature, meaning, and ability to inspire. In this sense, design, art, thinking, strategy, vision, and even attitude are inherently interconnected. They shape how we understand, interpret, and respond to our relationship with the world.
Most of my inspiration comes from reflections on the world, the times we live in, and life itself.
Jing Wang
5. What do you hope people take away from experiencing your art?
I hope it encourages people to explore and reflect. Through emotional resonance, contrast, curiosity, or even doubt, I hope the artworks can awaken certain subconscious awareness within the viewer—whether it’s something they’ve never paid attention to, a deeper exploration of existing perceptions, or a chance to re-question and rethink what already in their mind. Take the Pattern Leap Artwork Series as an example; I hope viewers reconsider their relationship with the city, the history and culture, the AI era, and the deeper connections they share with the world, which will ultimately shape their new sense of identity.
Jing Wang’s story shows how art is more than just creativity—it’s a way to understand ourselves and the world around us. She encourages us to reflect on culture and human connection through her work. Her ability to blend art and design meaningfully reminds us of the power of creativity to bring people together. To learn more about Jing, visit the links below.
