Meet Elena Yu | Artist, Educator and Arts Organizer

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

Hi Elena, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I grew up in a creative family where my creative and artistic growth was supported and encouraged from a young age. After getting her Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, my mom ended up going back to school for fashion design and had her own small business making children’s clothes and handbags our of vintage kimonos fabric throughout my childhood. This business was actually called “Bao,” which I reinterpreted when I launched my own clothing and design project “Bao Bao” last year. My dad was an architect who after working for Morphosis in the early 90s went on to open his own office, George Yu Architects, until his early passing from cancer in 2007. I grew up surrounded by artists and architects who loved my parents and exposed me to what a vibrant community and life artists can lead.

My parents enrolled me in art classes at “Arts Umbrella” in Vancouver, Canada (where we lived from 1995-1999) when I was 2 years old. My mom still had a wooden wall collage with gold leaf and nailed together pieces that I made in that class! Later, growing up in LA, I was incredibly lucky to go to an arts-centered high school where I took art classes in the afternoons and had some great teachers who encouraged me to apply to study art in college. I ended up going to UCLA for Art and had a typical LA art school experience where I built a community of peers, worked with some amazing artists such as Simone Forti, Andrea Fraser and the late Silke Otto-Knapp, and learned how to be a critical thinker and maker (possibly too critical… that’s something many of us have to unlearn after art school).

After college I got a job as an intern for Andrea Zittel in Joshua Tree and moved here thinking I’d be here for a year, but six years later I am still here. Andrea and all the artists I’ve met in her world and the diverse creative community in Joshua Tree have continually convinced me to stay.

I feel so grateful for my creative upbringing, but I certainly don’t think one has to have an artistic family in order to pursue an artistic career! One of my favorite things I’ve done is teach art to school-aged students in various contexts from museums to public school afterschool programs. I feel strongly that exposure to encouraging creative mentors of any kind is crucial to ensuring young artists know that art is a valid passion and career choice. Funding arts education is essential but unfortunately not a given, especially in less funded and more rural communities like the Morongo Basin.

I feel immense privilege to be able to say that I never once questioned or even considered not pursuing an artistic career. I actually feel like I’m at a point in my life where I am wanting to question my assumption that being an artist in the traditional (and often broke) sense is the only path. I have lots of interests and am curious about what other careers are out there that might enrich my practice and maybe even make a little more money!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art includes many facets including organizing and hosting art events in my local community, designing and making clothing and custom home textiles, weaving, sculpture, performance, social practice, writing and being a member of multiple collaborative artist collectives.

One part of my art that I’m most excited about and proud of right now is my textile-based clothing and design practice, which I call “Bao Bao.” I make one-of-a-kind pre-made and custom-commissioned clothing, bags, quilts, curtains, cushions, mostly using secondhand, vintage and deadstock fabrics. A lot of the other work I do is very heady; it requires a lot of thinking, conceptualizing and administration. But my sewing and design practice feels more purely instinctual and aesthetically driven. I love to make brightly colored designs and am working on honing an aesthetic that will hopefully someday be unmistakably mine.

When I was a kid, I spent most of my free time sketching clothing, looking at photos of runway collections online and in magazines, and even drawing my own invented fashion and lifestyle magazine. When I was in high school I dreamed of going to fashion school, but ended up studying art instead. I am more interested in the art world than the fashion industry, but really I am curious about the space in between these established worlds. I want to be an artist AND designer, picking the best parts of each world and reject the icky parts like over-commercialization, unhealthy body image and work habits, and excessive waste? I’m still learning how to do this, but I think there are a lot of exciting folks that have been working in this in-between space for a long time, or who are young emerging artists/designers like myself.

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?
When my best friends visit me in the Morongo Basin, we almost always make the trek out to The Palms Restaurant for Sunday brunch. Kevin, Laura, Lindsay, Kelly and all the other people in the Palms community are special gems not to be exploited but definitely appreciated! They are real sturdy, reliable and lovely desert folks.

Next we’ll continue on east and take a day trip to hike Amboy crater, stopping along the way to gawk at the turquoise blue commercially made salt trenches on Amboy Road.

On the way home (if it’s a weekend), we’ll stop by the Glass Outhouse Art Gallery in Wonder Valley. This gallery in a former bunny barn accepts all proposals for exhibitions, so the waitlist to show there is years-long! I was lucky to be in a show there in March 2020 and gather with my friends before we knew the pandemic was really serious. There is an actual glass outhouse where you can use the toilet and look out across the landscape (but people outside can’t see you due to one-way mirror glass).

Before heading home we’ll stop at Sam’s Market in Joshua Tree and grab some specialty six-packs in the secret “Beer Cave” in the back. We’d probably cook at home because although there are some pretty decent restaurants in the area, the crowds and high prices are easily beat by a good home-cooked meal. My favorite cookbook author/chef in recent years is Yottam Ottolengi; I love his book “Simple,” especially out here where we can’t get a lot of the fancy ingredients found in some of his less simple cookbooks.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My close friend, collaborator and fellow artist Annie Albagli, who is based in San Francisco. I met Annie when she was an artist-in-residence at Andrea Zittel’s A-Z West in 2016/2017. She is an incredible artist and a truly loving and vibrant person.

Website: https://baobaoyu.bigcartel.com

Instagram: @elenadaojingyu / @bao_bao_yu_

Image Credits
image with people with arms out: Miriam Medellin Myers image of body curled up on top of rock: Rich Lomibao image of lichen sleeves hanging on branches with photograph in center: Nice Day Photo image of artist standing in front of quilt: Sarah Lyon images of bags and weaving: Elena Yu