It all started when…

I am a 22-year-old cartoonist, illustrator, designer, and animator. I graduated with a BFA in Design last year at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. For 18 years of my life, I was born and raised in Vancouver (Not British Columbia) just three hours down south from Seattle. I’m most well known for my comics in the Lily, a woman ran publication from the Washington Post, my animated gifs about March 10th and “My Tibetan Tendencies” a series of comics I made about my life as a Tibetan-American.

What does being Tibetan mean to you?

Being Tibetan makes me feel that I have this big responsibility to make it all who I am. Which is true to a point, my blood, my face and who I grew up with. It’s always been Tibetan. But Tenzing Lhamo is also an artist. She sings, loves to take pictures of cute dogs on the street. I don’t know if any of this would make sense. But it sometimes gives me anxiety to be put on a pedestal and expected to speak out for my community sometimes. 

Was there ever a moment in life where you felt lost/felt uncontrolled of things around you?

I had made a LOT of changes before I came up with “My Tibetan Tendencies.” MTT was made for my Capstone project at Cornish. It’s our senior project that compiles everything we learned these past four years. We present for the end of year expo. It was probably the most stress-inducing process in my life so far. At first, I wanted to make a Tibetan children’s book, then a graphic novel about my parent’s immigration, to doing interviews with Tibetans my age and illustrating them (actually rather similar to what we are doing now haha). I knew I wanted to make something combining my Tibetan heritage and my artistic skills. Thus MTT surfaced. I knew I could easily produce short comics but still make it fun and relatable. Since I was getting my degree in Design, I was worried the project would be too “self indulging” and not “design” enough. Eventually, I had to let it go because time was of the essence. All of the stress was worth it after I saw how much people loved it! But I got so burnt out from the project I had set it aside for a few months. I’m trying to get back on the horse now!

I felt like it was a big mishmash of things. I feel like artists can’t just have one influence. It comes in waves and what environment you are surrounded in. I read a lot of fantasy and mystery books as a kid. My Ama-la’s friend gave a ton of Disney movies from my box of VHS I would watch religiously. Anime and manga were a huge influence. But I feel like reading the graphic novel “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang was really monumental. Because it was the first time I had read something that told Asian American experience in a way that was approachable. Something that I and someone that wasn’t Asian could understand. 

Long term goals, I want to get published. More specifically by First Second Comics. The majority of my favorite graphic novels were all published by them. Also to make enough money where I could buy a plane ticket for my parents to visit their families back in Kathmandu whenever they wanted to.

If it wasn’t for art, I wouldn’t be able to show the Tibetan community how I view the world through my lens. I can express the things that are important to me in a more visual and tangible way. I was so humbled to see how many other Tibetans had connected with my comics. It surprised me to see how many non-Tibetans have reached out too. There is a person who is working on their capstone project at my college right now and was inspired by My Tibetan Tendencies comic to make their own project on identity and culture. I almost wanted to cry!

I get motivated by my fellow artists. When I see my friends making really cool and creative pieces. It gets me off my butt and grab my sketchbook. 

It doesn’t matter what school you go to. As long as you take what you learn and make something that you like and it resonates with you. Other people will find it and appreciate it.