Meet Yanque Yip | Muralist & Fine Artist

Hi Yanque, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I realized that I was gifted artistically very early and started drawing intentionally as early as 7 years old. I found that I was often celebrated by classmates throughout my primary school days and highschool days. My visual arts teacher and my close family always encouraged me to create more. I was commissioned to do my first painting on a *counter* inside a bar in my district because of the fact that one of my uncles always told his friends how talented I was and they wanted to see for themselves. At that time, I was already doing excellently in highschool, pursuing the sciences and visual arts. This experience in creating this *painting* in the bar sparked the idea to start my own business to provide artistic services and I created a business card to advertise my artistic services. Initially, I never really took my art seriously and it was always a tool to aid in my career as a scientist to cover dailey expenses such as traveling, lunch etc. It wasn’t until 2022 that I decided to focus seriously on visual arts, having realized that I was able to impress the highest audience in Jamaica after being apart of two of the largest artistic projects to celebrate Jamaica’s 60th anniversary. By March 2023, I knew that art was the career that I needed to give 100 percent solely and that’s what I’ve been doing.

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.
II consider myself to be a PolyMath and Leonardo Da Vinci was the example I looked towards as I struggled in highschool with the concept that I had to choose a specific career path having loved the sciences and visual arts simultaneously. When I read about Leonardo Da Vinci, I saw that he was able to incorporate his interests into his art. I took the route of science at the university level and studied biochemistry. This gave me less time to create art “directly”. However, I ended up creating within the sciences through visualisation and observation in the scientific enquiries. This scientific pathway created my combination of art and science and set in motion what would become my “philosophical artistic approach”. Where I am artistically happened through a very intricate series of events that ultimately roots in my ability to always create honestly. Creating honestly is about expressing what I see, what I believe and what I think about. I often *express* myself in my body of work and this came out in many self-portraits. When others saw my works, they were able to connect to what I created and this is what encouraged them to commission me to create. It was always the quality of my work academically and intellectually that made others want to see my work and have me create for them. It was so easy to challenge myself to create by conceptualising, visualising and realizing. I never actually thought of art as a “cash cow” and initially my aunt, Jillian Carter, always encouraged me to charge more for my work. I had little understanding of the value of my work in early days of starting my business fresh out of highschool. I was guided academically but not too much financially. I made some great works at minimal cost and through those years I was delivering the highest quality I could at an undercharged level as a teenager. I have developed an artistic identity, using my name as my brand in “YanqueYipART” and using my surname as my logo in “YIP” which is abbreviated “Your Infinite Progression”. “ARTS” to me is “Action, Reasoning, Time & Spirit”. I have applied the *concept* of “Infinite Progression” to my life in everything that I do, and my “Personal philosophical piecies” express principles that speak to the human spirit of progression in faculties that span the mental, physical and spiritual. The works I create aim to be meaningful and applicable. The “YanqueYipART” brand is about applying Action, Reasoning, Time and Spirit to encourage others to apply the concept that “Knowledge is Infinite, so is Power” and this stipulates directly that one can always improve from where they are. I readily accept commissions that are impactful philosophically towards the development of the human spirit which directly impacts the development of relationships among people and their environment (internal and external). I’ve been active in the world of mural designing and execution while creating my personal body of work based on my love for athletics, science and math. My works feature sacred geometry, math, the human figure (especially from self-reference) and are targeted towards pushing forward the “noble principles” such as persistence, authenticity, consistency, excellence and discipline. The aim of my works is to document my growth as a human being and often converting pain to paintings. Just so I am keeping it real, I am currently training as a sprinter and this is heavily impactful on my life as a progressive human being mentally, physically and spiritually, and is summed up in the “noble principles” which in turn are expressed in every “personal piece” that I paint. My brand is uniquely an “Athlete Artist”. I am currently working on a sprinting goal, constantly improving and my story as a human being is being documented in my book to be published in 2025 alongside my solo art exhibition scheduled for August 25, 2025.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am a nature-loving person and when I am free, I go to the river. hills or farm. I enjoy cooking by the riverside or beach and hiking. Jamaica is a whole experience and there are many sites to enjoy. “Alligator Pond beach”, the Blue Mountains, many unpopular rivers such as “Beat-back” in Porus of Manchester are great sites to stay over. “Little Ochi” serves great sea meals by the ocean view. Camping in the hills or a little distance from the towns is great and there are areas in farms near rivers that are great for this in places like St. Elizabeth. A visit to the capital city of Jamaica, Downtown Kingston would be one site on the list to show the Kingston Creative Artwalk which features murals that I have done. Montego Bay is another place on the list given that it has some of the best beaches. There are adventure rides such as “Cool Runnings” as well. I always have a series of friends and family that are ready to share a great vibe and than in itself is an awesome experience. I’m into organic foods so most times I actually cook an “Ital pot” and blend up some nice punch or drink when I link up with friends. “Fancy Fruits” is one of my chill spots for ital food and “Chillitos” serves up some decent Mexican food, drinks and necessary vibes.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My artistic abilities were encouraged early in my life by my observation of the shadow of a van that I rode on to school in the early mornings at the kindergarten stage. The shadow of the van was wider in the mornings because of the angle of the rising sun. I started drawing this shadow and associating it with the shape of the van from sideview. This lead me to drawing vehicles and attempting to draw trucks. My mother, Gaynell Spencer, who is a talented seamstress and chef had a scrap book that she normally kept samples from her sewing classes and one day she drew a truck using construction lines for two cuboids and adding the features such as windows and wheels afterwards. This gave me insight into the concept of form at this early stage and I believe was the most important point of my artistic mind’s development from that stage seeing that I have never forgotten that experience. Her seamstress scrapbook also became my first sketchbook outside of my notebooks. It was like a point of transformation into how I saw the world. Fastforwarded to highschool, I met Mr. Neville Thompson, my visual arts teacher for 7 years and at grade 7 while in class and being introduced to the concept of primary and secondary colours, he asked the class, “What is the result of combining the primary colours yellow and blue?”. I was looking through the window at the yellow sun and the blue sky and he recognised that I was cringing my eyes as I did that in class. He directed the question to me and though I hesitated, he encouraged me to state what I thought. I responded “Green”. This was a critical moment for me as it was a boost in my self-belief. Throughout my 7 years under the tutelage of Mr. Neville Thompson, I essentially learned at the level of a university student. My step-father, Vincent Newell, always challenged me to draw something more complex, including a motorbike, my aunt, Jillian Carter always supported my creativity and my uncle Rory Cariddice celebrated my abilities whenever he had the opportunity. These five individuals were crucial for my artistic path.

Website: yanqueyip.art

Instagram: https://instagram.com/yanqueyipart

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanque-yip

Twitter: https://x.com/YanqueYip

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yanque.yip

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@yanqueyipart

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@yanqueyip