Art is my Bread and Butter
是藝術也是麵包
Interview with Illustrator
Carson Ting
Influences
Naming his number one influence as an artist, Carson cites Bruce Lee and his dad. Bruce Lee because he’s the “Asian Superstar in North America.” Seeing him on TV shaped his identity as a Chinese in Canada. Right there beside Bruce Lee is his dad, who passed away in earlier, and who Carson noted as having a “huge impact” on him. His dad would draw for fun and “for some reason he would always draw Tarzan,” Carson recalls.
問及Carson在藝術生涯中影響他最深的人時，他毫不猶疑地說是李小龍。李小龍是北美洲的亞洲巨星，在電影的形象深入民心，在Carson心中塑造了他的加拿大華人身份。另一位影響至深的人是他已離世的父親。回想起父親閒時以繪畫自娛，Carson笑說：「他總是畫卡通人物泰山！」
Carson recalls. He vividly recounts a “mind blowing experience” at a young age when his dad introduced him to… wait for it… pencil crayons! Mind you before that, Carson had always thought pencils only came in gray or black. With all of his artist inclination and sensitivities, even at a young age, the introduction to these colorful drawing tools turned his world upside down and forever expanded his imagination as an illustrator.
小時候是父親讓他知道世上竟然有彩色鉛筆！鉛筆不是只得灰和黑的嗎？Carson說那次發現翻轉了他的世界，一盒小小的彩色鉛筆，從此打開了他的想像領域，埋下插畫家的種子。
“As simple as showing the then-kid Carson some pencil crayons,
his father has forever left his mark in shaping the person Carson is today.”
In today’s economy and culture, education is an area parents have outsourced to teachers, tutors, the Internet, and etc. Yet by doing something as simple as showing the then-kid Carson some pencil crayons, his father has forever left his mark in shaping the person Carson is today.
在今日的經濟與文化環境裏，父母早已把教育「外判」給老師、補習班，甚至互聯網。但原來父親做的一件簡單的事－小得只是給當時年紀小小的Carson一盒彩色鉛筆，已經深刻影響了他的一生。
Take one look at Carson’s artwork and you see vibrancy; colours dance energetically on the canvas of choice, bursting forth with a passion that tells you he having a lot of fun doing what he is doing. If there is anything parents can learn from Carson’s story about parent-child interaction, it has to be to never under estimate the tiniest thing you do with your child, it may just be a life-shaping stroke of genius.
Carson的作品活躍而具生命力，鮮明的色彩如在畫布上跳舞，熱情澎湃，一看已能感受到他非常享受創作的過程。如果讀者已為人父母，Carson的故事也許能給你一點啟發：千萬別輕看你和子女一起做的微小瑣事，隨時是影響他或她一生的神來之筆。
Realities
Google “Chairman Ting” and you’ll see that Carson fit the profile of a rising star in the industry. Having fronted projects with big names like Nike and Adidas, not to mention the SportChek campaign he is working on at the time of this writing, he has got everything going for him.
在Google上搜尋”Chairman Ting”的話，不難發現Carson是現時業界裡的後起之秀，與著名運動品牌Nike和Adidas合作；寫這篇文章之際，他正忙於SportChek的廣告系列。
When asked about qualities he sees as essential to make it in the business other than the art itself, he pointed to resilience, among other things, as one of the keys to succeed under pressure and even in times of criticism from others. He mentions a recent incident where he had to work and rework his illustrations over and over again to fit the client’s demand. Another quality is to be open, “there are certain opportunities,” as he recounts, “when I finally did say ‘yes’ to, turned out to be bigger opportunity that I thought.”
有何個人素質是成功打入設計界商業市場時必不可缺的？
Carson提到有頑強的毅力極為關鍵，這樣才可以面對客戶和同業的批評，在壓力下繼續努力。他舉例說最近便為一設計項目，重複又重複地修改他的插畫稿件，以配合客戶的需求。此外，開放的心懷也很重要，他說：「有好幾次，當我猶疑良久而最終say yes時，才知道原來是比我想像中更大的機會！」
