The artists invite us into their studio to explore a trove of treasures from an antique typewriter to old school cameras.
(Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang)
"My girlfriend and I are both concept artists, and fortunate enough to work for companies that support remote work,” says Ryan. “Since we spend most of our time at home, a comfortable workspace is crucial for enhanced productivity.
As we don’t own a house, we opt to stay in one place for a maximum of two years before moving. One reason is that life can become repetitive if we stay in one place for too long. We begin to notice our moving pattern, and it becomes monotonous. One added bonus of frequent moves is the chance to decorate and design the layout of our new place. This process poses a challenge because there’s no perfect apartment, but we concept artists thrive on challenges.
Choosing to set up our workspace in the living room was deliberate, given its ample sunlight. Additionally, we sometimes engage in personal work or play games on our own devices, allowing us to maintain conversation instead of isolating ourselves in separate rooms.”
Snowy adds: “You may have noticed we have several live plants. They provide us a pleasant distraction when we’ve been staring at screens for too long. Acquiring these has gotten addictive, and keeping them alive is rewarding.
One added bonus of frequent home moves is the chance to decorate and design the layout of our new place
Boyuan Ryan Shi
Most of the time, our cat, Taco, will share the space with us. Consequently, we’ve chosen the largest tabletop to give Taco more space should he opt to join us in our work, sip our water, or simply just bother us. Strangely, he loves to chew on all the greenery except for catnip, so safeguarding our plants from Taco has become an ongoing battle.
We aren’t keen on displaying our own artworks on the wall, so we’ve chosen to exhibit pieces from other artists we admire, or items that hold personal meaning to us. See if you can recognise any of them!”
Boyuan Ryan Shi is a concept artist working in the games industry for Crystal Dynamics, check out his Instagram to see his work. Also a concept artist, Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang works at Respawn Entertainment – for more of Snowy’s art visit her Instagram page.
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