Abby Wang is an Asian-American artist from Campbell, California. She graduated from Bowdoin College, where she received her BA in Visual Arts in 2023. At Monson Arts, she worked on her graphic novel memoir that details her diagnosis with stage four Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in her junior year of college, and the subsequent treatment and recovery.
Starting with a written outline constructed from photographs, journal entries, texts, and other ephemera from her time in the hospital, the work is then drawn traditionally with ink and color pencil on paper. In sifting through memories, she hopes to find ways to find meaning in her past experiences that can be brought forth to the present. Weaving together the clinical details of chemotherapy with private anecdotes and personal reflection, the graphic novel began as a thank you to the people who supported her through treatment and as a form of processing her own grief. Through working at Monson and sharing with other young adult cancer patients and survivors, she hopes to capture the specific difficulties and joys of being a young cancer survivor, but also the universal ones of growing older and looking for purpose.
What was the best part for you about being at Monson Arts? And what, if anything, did you learn about your creative process while being here?
If I had to pick the best part of being at Monson, it’s a toss-up between the other residents I was with, or the general store yogurt. No, really, it was being with the other residents and having the time to spend with them and learn from them (although, I do really think about the yogurt often).
Everyone at the residency is so thoughtful and incredibly energizing to be around, and there’s a really wonderful balance between working and taking the time to be with others. At home or on my own, I have a tendency to take breaks and walk away from the work and get distracted but, being in the building knowing the other writers were hard at work (at least in my imagination, since the doors were closed) made it so I was really able to keep myself on track and get back to my project each time. Since my work is so personal, a lot of it happens where I am just rotating my own thoughts in my head and get very stuck inside there, and it was great having other people around to pull me away from that and figure out what I was trying to say. And I really wanted to have something to show each time we had the studio visits because I held the other artists in such high regard, so it kept me very focused. Besides, I knew I would get to take breaks and see everyone at dinner, drink tea together at the house, or grab drinks at the pub after a long day!
I joked before that since my work is so much about my personal life, ignoring my drawing to spend all this time with people was just part of my research and the process. But it really is true, both in getting to talk to really bright people about my work that helped sharpen what I wanted to say, and also just in getting me to be excited about waking up, going to work, and making the work. And I really cannot emphasize enough that everyone was just the best to be around.
What was your focus during your residency?
At Monson, I was working on the first draft for my graphic novel that I had loosely outlined prior to residency. In the outline I had before, I had written down all the major events and points I wanted to hit, but the actual outline of the exact words I wanted to use in the comic itself was still far from finished. Not to mention the drawings, which were only about a third of the way done. At the time, it had taken me about a year to complete since I had been so busy with classes and work. In fact, for the few months before, I had barely touched the work or made any art.
At the residency, it was a completely different story; I was able to finish an entire third in the few weeks we were there at a really kind of mind-boggling pace. Whenever I finish a chapter, I scan the pages and send them out to a few good friends who read the work. To any of you reading this, thank you! You have no idea how much I appreciate that. When I was at Monson, I was sending out pages at a rate that I could tell was equally impressive and concerning to my friends (though I reassured them then, and you now, it was because I was very inspired). The project still isn’t complete, though I’ve gotten to the part where I’m now very excited to draw the remaining pages. The ending was one of the things I had come up with first, and I’m hoping it ties together a lot of the threads I’ve set up in these first two chunks. Since coming home, I’ve been able to knock out a couple more pages, and hopefully, will have this first draft done soon.
Who are some artists that inspire you and your work?
All the other artists and writers with me at this residency (with a special shout out to the other writer working on a memoir, and the other two working on medically related novels! Birds of a feather)
I always found this fun to answer at the residency because after others listed the likes of Schiele, Hopper, etc, I would get to say that I grew up reading Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Mad Magazine, and others up that alley that inspired my work. In a more current vein, I was very inspired by Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (gifted to me by a friend during my treatment without knowing what the memoir was about, which she regrets deeply) and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. They all have the personal and emotional core that I hope for with my work. And whenever I need inspiration to make art in general, I watch the episode Zima Blue from Love, Death, and Robots on Netflix.
Abby in her studio at Monson Arts
Time and space to create.
Monson Arts is a new artists’ residency and arts center in Monson, Maine. Programs include residencies for artists and writers, intensive shorter workshops, and educational partnerships with area secondary schools.