For Christina K. Yang, ACX Kids was the beginning

Raised in the San Gabriel Valley, alumna Christina K. Yang (BS 17) works as a background painter for Gaumont, an animation studio based in Vincennes, France whose productions include Netflix’s F is for Family and the forthcoming Do, Re & Mi for Amazon.

Her career follows in the footsteps of her mom Chunae Kim, a fine artist, and her father Teddy T. Yang (BFA 89 Illustration), who had a long career in animation.

“My dad would bring home samples of art from his workplace and I couldn’t get enough of what he was showing me,” says Yang, recalling her father’s animation tests, character designs, and production art. “Those samples helped fuel my own budding imagination.”

They also made her realize that behind all the narratives that captured her imagination were artists who used their skills to help bring those stories to life. By the age of 10, Yang had started taking classes in ACX Kids (then ArtCenter for Kids), ArtCenter’s program for K–12 students.

“My dad was an alumnus, and he knew ArtCenter was a place that would nurture my interests,” says Yang, adding that those first courses she took not only helped her develop her skills, but also encouraged artistic exploration and inspired productivity and focus.

“There was an infectious energy to ArtCenter in those days,” says Yang, recalling the excitement of walking through the campus as a kid and seeing student artwork, critiques and presentations. “I felt an overpowering sense that this where I belonged.”

She took that sense and ran with it, soon immersing herself in ACX Teens (then ArtCenter for Teens) classes—along with her alumnus brother Nicolas K. Yang (BFA 17 Photography)—for almost five years.

In that program, Yang learned how to capture the spirit of models posing in themed costumes in John Howarth’s Advanced Drawing from the Nude class, and how to experiment with styles and colors. She cites Entertainment Design Summer Intensive, taught by Hao Wu (BFA 11 Illustration) and Yuri Ranum (BS 13 Entertainment), as the course that propelled her to apply to the College’s Entertainment Design program. “Each week they emphasized designing a different aspect of a world, from costumes to vehicles,” says Yang, recalling a sea monster she created in that class, which was inspired by flowers, rocks and splashes of paint.

Yang entered ArtCenter’s undergraduate program in 2013 as an Entertainment Design major. Of her undergraduate years, she calls it an experience in which she was “lucky enough to meet incredibly talented designers and make great friends” and one that forever shaped her definition of her work.

“At times, I found myself challenged and overcome with doubt,” says Yang, but adds that as she continued in her studies, she learned how to recognize her own strengths, develop her own artistic voice, and how the discipline of professionalism earns respect. “I emerged from ArtCenter with a broader and deeper understanding of myself as a creative individual.”

“ArtCenter provided me with a space in which I could truly come into my own,” she adds, thinking back on her ArtCenter experience, from her first ACX Kids class to her graduation. “It helped me to begin to understand what might lie ahead on the rest of my life journey.”