22 Jun Featured Member Artist: Fox Si-Long Chen
Featured Member Artist: Fox Si-Long Chen
By Jamie Jackson
Pandemic-induced stay-at-home orders made it nearly impossible for photographers like Fox Si-Long Chen to create and distribute their work in traditional ways. But Fox doesn’t settle for traditional or ordinary.
Fox owns Foxsilong Studio, a place where all of her art and freelance writing is showcased. One of her first artistic passions was creating Japanese Anime, manga comics, as a teenager. She moved into painting, and other 2D artforms, including photography.
“People might only recognize me as a photographer because I typically go to […] events carrying the camera instead of a paintbrush,” said Fox. “Not a whole lot of people see me in my house painting or drawing. It’s easy for people to make that association.”
In 2015, Fox participated in the “Art the Box!” initiative and completed a gorgeous Koi fish mural on the traffic box at 8th & Broad. This box is on the street in front of Groucho’s Deli. Its teal, blue and bright orange colors are noticeable from several blocks away.
As she said, many people know Fox as a local-event photographer. With a big camera and an even bigger smile, she’s hard to miss. When we talked to her, she lamented the stay-at-home orders as the equivalent of a death-to-public-events sentence for spring and summer events.
She went on to say that nearly all of her photography income that she expected to receive has been cut off and she’s hesitant to accept and schedule the booking requests that are starting to trickle in. To help her stay creative, Fox said she’s able to take some nature and wildlife photography on her walks. She also spends time volunteering at AU Health as a COVID-19 test results caller.
In the future Fox and her husband, Hector Caceres, hope to open their own business. He is studying architecture and Fox hopes to compliment his commercial structural design skills with her work in web design, photography and digital media creation.
*edit: Fox’s full name order is Fox Si-Long Chen, and has been corrected.