Meet Pearl Lau | Artist and Art Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pearl Lau and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pearl, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born in Hong Kong right after my parents fled China in 1949. My mother, a German-American, married my Chinese father in the US when he was a student at Columbia University in New York. His student visa wasn’t renewed due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Only 100 Chinese were allowed to emigrate to the US annually. My mom, being her tenacious self, bought a Hong Kong birth certificate to allow us to come back to the US. We are all legal now but that just proved how silly the law was, Dad was still Chinese, but now had a Hong Kong birth certificate, which made him a British Subject. I learned from my mom not to give up, to try and figure out how to get things done.

Growing up in queens, NY with a half Chinese-half German background had it’s ups and downs. I look Chinese, mom is blond and blue-eyed. Rumors in school spread that I was adopted. However, I had many teachers who were supportive, I also had some that were clearly racist. I remember being asked in 6th grade if I was named after Pearl Harbor! I had a better grasp of history than she did. I calmly reminded her that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, as was Nanjing. No Chinese family would name their child after that!

Later when I became an art director I used that lineage in job interviews. Once I got past HR, first and second level admin, and final interview with the president of the company, they always asked “what are you?” (I still get that several times a year, along with where are you REALLY from?) Now I answered with, “I’m half Chinese, half German. Twenty minutes after I eat, I’m hungry for power” I always got the job.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art career evolved. After Art and Design (commercially oriented) I went to art college (fine arts oriented). When I got my degree in Art Education there weren’t any art teachers jobs. Luckily, I could do graphic design. I was an art director for 25 years. I worked for most of the major publishing companies. Got lots of awards. Went to lots of parties. Had an expense account. Had high heels in every color lined up under my desk. Loved it. My art background helped a lot in hiring illustrators and photographers.

Then I decided I was tired of making money for people who were already wealthy and wanted to (I know this sounds corny) make a difference. I wanted to teach art to inner city Brooklyn kids. I wanted to try and give them a chance to have a life that I enjoyed, even if you didn’t come from a wealthy family background.
I got my MA in Art Eduction in my late 40’s. I was older than most teachers but I was much wiser.

When I went to my job interview, the principal told me she could only afford a part-time art teacher for 3 days a week. Now my marketing skills kicked in, by the end of the interview I had convinced her to hire me full-time. I stayed there for over 20 years. That school had 26 languages. We had students from Bangladesh,Yemen, Pakistan, Mexico, China etc. I taught them about art from their own culture. I taught them Chinese characters to write couplets for Chinese New Year Year (most teachers make paper lanterns which is, ahem, not appropriate, the Lantern Festival is a month later!) For the Mexican kids I taught them how to write their name in Maya Hieroglyphics. My love of studying art from other cultures was perfect for this school.

My favorite line was from a 5th grade boy from Mexico. “Ms. Lau, my grandma is a Maya Indian (his words) and was always embarrassed by that. But now that I know the Maya invented writing, I’m so proud of her”. That is gold!

As an artist and art educator, I have been able to work with so many differently abled people. I had in New York and still have in Vero Beach a group of young adults with Autism and Down Syndrome. Their goals are different from the “neural typical” students in other art classes. I feel fortunate to be able to give these people a voice, especially as many are non-verbal. Usually the “voice” is a metaphor, but in this case it might be their only communication. We look at other artists, we discuss form, color and concept. In many cases, Autistic people can be very mathematical. We recently had an exhibit of M. C, Escher at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. His art portraying staircases going up and upside down simultaneously did not confuse them. They embraced it and loved creating projects that were 3-D  with staircases going everywhere. I can’t express enough how art is for everyone!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in 2 places, New York for the summers and Florida for the winters. In New York, I’d start with the Cloisters in upper Manhattan. it’s a collections of castle-like monastary buildings that was imported and assembled in Ft. Tryon park overlooking the Hudson. Rockefeller purchased the buildings and the land across the river on the New Jersey side. He bought that land to make sure no one could build anything, it would always be a beautiful natural view from the terraces of the Cloisters.

Then I’d move down to the Met. Their Chinese art collection is fantastic. Mrs. Astor recreated a Chinese garden from Suzhou in the Met. When the Chinese workmen came to build it, they had been told there isn’t any good food in America. They built a fire in the Met to cook lunch! The director assured them they would get whatever they wanted to eat, please don’t make any more fires in the galleries.

After the Met, a must is the Museum of Modern Art. Not just for paintings and sculpture but the Industrial Arts. Cars, furniture, fans.

You must eat in Chinatown! Not only is it incredibly affordable, but delicious.

For Florida, the beaches can’t be beat. Go to the seashore and paint. Every town has a “Tiki Bar” and the live music in Florida is great! Parking is usually free too. When I moved to FL I embraced the alligators. I love the wildlife here. I’m planning an art show with my plein air group to paint all the conservation lands in Indian River County. I want to help save the turtles. I want signs that say “If you can’t avoid running over a turtle, you probably shouldn’t be driving anymore”.

There are many old botanical gardens to explore. Edison’s house on the west coast, the Bok gardens in central FL and the Leu gardens near Orlando.

Did I mention the seafood here is incredible?

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I showed a love for art when I was very young. I remember we had to bring a leaf into Kindergarten class and draw from it. Mrs. Resnick stopped at my table and pointed out that “Pearl noticed the end of the stem is thicker, there are several colors in the leaf, and the edges are pointy”. In my head I’m thinking…Dang! Doesn’t everybody see that?

Mom worked on Saturdays so she had to park me somewhere. She found Mr. Trotta’s art class. He was a portrait painter and taught the old school academic way. We had to draw from plaster casts for a year before we could use oils. Once we could paint, he made us copy old master paintings. He wanted us to earn how to mix colors before we went out on our own. I met the older kids who all went to the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. I got in and found my tribe! What an incredible experience. The school was so diversified. Black, white, Chinese, Puerto Rican, we were all there. Everyone got along! The teachers taught us about social injustice and how to use art to show our feelings. Max Ginsburg was our painting teacher. We marched with him, we had early morning painting sessions with him. I was at high school from 8 til 4. None of us wanted to skip school and miss anything that was happening in art class. 4 periods of art a day. It was Heaven in mid-town.

Website: pearllauart.com

Instagram: PearlLauArt

Facebook: Pearl Lau

Youtube: Florida Art Chix

Image Credits
Photo of Pearl Painting by Patricia Rottino Cummins Photo of Pearl on Camel by Bob lang