Was once an influencer, and why the hiatus?

Featured in some magazines and newspaper about blogging and photography

Okay, so thought of answering this question here cause it wouldn't be enough in just one tweet. 

How did you become an influencer dulu2 and why did you take a hiatus afterwards. Answer only if you want to. Thankss!!

Tapi yg ni wajib jawab, where do you derive your art inspiration from

— Queen Lychee (@lycheerambutan) February 12, 2021

Will answer this in parts. 

 "How did you become an influencer dulu2..."

The influencer bit, I'd say happened because of MySpace. I was one of the earliest people to have signed up to MySpace. Either it was below 500 or 5000 users at that time. And before they had the option of customizing the top friends list, I would automatically be there on most, especially for those in Malaysia. 

Also back then I did a lot of artsy self-portraits, which at that time not many Malaysians did? And also my profile picture was a moving GIF. I kind of liked experimenting a lot before others did (cause I was a loner nerd at  home with nothing else better to do). And the computer and Internet was my go to place to express my introvert-ness. So with all that combined, I guess people took interest in what I do.

I did manage to influence quite a number of people to actually get a camera and start taking photos. Which in a way was quite an achievement? So yeah, one thing lead to another. I started with the blog Budu & Belacan.. went up up up...

But.. in reality, my life was kind of in a mess. I still was very active after my divorce. So, then years after, I met someone... and at that point I thought, I should focus on my personal life, PRIVATELY. Prior to that, I used to share EVERYTHING about my life. Which kind of backfired. People started talking on gossip boards, making assumptions about my personal life. It bothered me a lot. I don't blame them though, cause I did put myself out there for public scrutiny. 

"...and why did you take a hiatus afterwards"

So, decided to just get off of the Internet one day. Deleted all my social media accounts, art accounts, blogs. Everything. There wasn't an option to deactivate back then. Just remove. So I did. Gone for a bout 3 years or so. Then in between got married, didn't really announce it, got pregnant, only announced when I gave birth. Many were quite surprised, was like, wait.. when did you remarry? 

If anyone notices I don't really share photos of myself or family these days, don't share much about my personal life other than daily struggles with art and my usual emotional mood swings. I feel that some things is best kept private. 

Then after much consideration and discussion with my husband, decided to make a comeback, as I wanted to do business from home, so thought that it was good to make a reappearance. So this is when I came up with Creep & Cream, a clothing brand for kids tees

My return was mostly for business. Only later that I started making it slightly more personal and now it's mostly about art. Which brings me to next bit of question:

"where do you derive your art inspiration from"

Fairy tales. Story books. Alice in Wonderland. These stories I grew up with as a child, influenced me a lot. And being bored at home, I always came up with things to occupy myself. Always played with my mom's make up, dressed up, acted in front of the mirror, imagined I was a Disney princess, sang, and all that. Then as I became a teen. I continued on expression myself, through drawings and poetry. It was only later on, when I got my first digital camera, I started doing self-portraits.. 

Now that I no longer have my studio. Married, staying at home with my kids, I still have the urge to express myself, but photography is no longer an option, so I started drawing more often, started from doodling.

And I had a phase were I doodled on wood. Then got my Samsung Galaxy Tablet, started dabbling with digital illustrations, paintings. And lately have been doing a lot of photo-realism, kinda brings back the memories of my photography days. 

There you go, I hope it answers your question dear Naddy! Thank you for the question, you just gave me content to write in my blog. Yayyyy. Alrite, will end this here. Bye! ~ Sue Anna Joe