Girls' Art Trip in Taichung
Recently, I’ve been learning about drawing boundaries and surrounding myself with like-minded people. I used to think I hate people and prefer to spend time alone because I find it draining to keep interacting and explaining to others who didn’t care while I’m trying so hard to explain myself. The truth is I didn’t found my people who energize me with their understanding and encouragement. I had several besties in the past but no one was quite like Sara. We two introverts talked from 9am to 9pm, talking about art, inner struggles and personal growth. It is rare but it happens! Let me introduce you my bestie in life at the moment.
This is Sara
who I have deep meaningful conversations with.
Sara, the brave girl not only arranged the meeting with her artist friend, Eric, but also messaged Liesbeth on Instagram, who’s currently living in Taichung to have an artist meet-up. Eric is from LA and create bold colorful artworks based on his travel experiences. Liesbeth is a typography designer working for IKEA. She came to Taiwan with her boyfriend just in time before Coronavirus restricted traveling. She created a 100 day project with interesting black & white drawings based on her experiences in Taiwan.
I was a bit nervous about meeting new people the night before, but these artists immediately made me feel at ease and talk comfortably. We four first went to Eric’s exhibition where he displayed some of his originals that match the fun theme of Moxy hotel. It’s a newly opened hotel and Eric was invited to paint several murals at Moxy. Then, we cycled off to lunch with beautiful weather. It was lovely to cycle and enjoy Taichung city.
Eric took us to an instagramable brunch place. It was indeed instagramable but our artist talks were more interesting. We are at different stages of finding and expressing ourselves with different struggles, different things we want to say but there’s one thing for sure. We are all artists. Artists are genuinely kind and honest. I guess that’s why we can express ourselves honestly through art.
After lunch, we went to visit Moxy hotel which is all about fun as you can see from the entrance to every corner inside the hotel.
Eric’s murals are inspired by his fun experiences in Taichung. Don’t forget to check out his murals and all the fun things to do when you’re in Taichung.
After Moxy hotel, we went to another artist shop that Sara wanted to visit as she has been listening to the artist’s podcast. When we entered the store, Sara, of course, tried to greet and told the artist that we came from Taipei to visit her store. Surprisingly, the artist didn’t seem interested or even tried to spare a few seconds to greet or smile at us. That made us wonder if she had something occupying her mind or she was just not that interested in her fans. It made us think how the attitude of an artist affects the viewers’ experiences. Art is an emotional connection. Without connection, it’s just a beautiful object without soul. If she spent some time talking to us like Eric did, it would leave us a deeper impression with her art and we will try to dig out more about her.
Anyways, after leaving the shop, according to Eric’s suggestion, we headed to a dark dodgy area called Zhongxin Market (忠信市場) full of little artsy shops and galleries. We found a quiet coffee shop that you can walk to the second floor with Japanese styled tatami. I’m rarely a tea drinker but more coffee and beer, but things are always different with Sara :)
We explored in the dark alleys a bit and walked into a cool gallery transformed from an old narrow house. Zhongxin Market was built in the late 60’s. With the new ways of consuming fresh goods, Zhongxin Market became less known. In the early days of the market, the construction company donated the grid-like alleys in the market to the municipal government as ownership in order to avoid taxation. This has become the main reason to make it difficult to integrate and reconstruct this area. Therefore, the market has been preserved to this day.
I have a thing for old dark dodgy places. They are so much more interesting with stories! I’m used to walking in dark dodgy alleys when I used to go out raving all night long in London. It makes me excited but not so much for Sara. We are so different, yet we hold similar values. That’s why we compliment each other and grow together.