Creating the Conan Pale Whale to celebrate US talk show host Conan O’Brien’s return to TV was a dream come true for Sydney artist Yiying Lu.
Twenty-something Lu first found fame as the artist behind the Twitter Fail Whale - it’s her image Twitter users see when the site crashes. The company has since bought other illustrations by Lu, including the Goodnight Owl.
Now she has designed the Conan Pale Whale for O’Brien to ride triumphantly into the post-NBC Tonight Show era. He tweeted Lu personally to thank her.
“Thanks to @Yiying Lu, I can finally come clean about my terrible whale riding addiction,” the Tweet said.
O’Brien’s company Team Coco emailed Lu in August to see if she would be interested.
“I was so excited because I have been a fan of Conan for a long time, I just love him,” Lu said. “He is so random and funny but also such a kind person. It was dream come true when they contacted me - they’d already talked to Twitter about the idea and were really excited, and it was just a matter of whether I wanted to do it or not. I was like ‘hell yeah I want to do it, I have to do it - it’s Conan’.”
Lu said she first felt a connection with O’Brien when she watched his final episode of The Tonight Show.
“People really wanted to hear what he thought about what NBC did to him because they thought it was unfair,” Lu said. “He was asked, before you leave do you have any words for us, and he said ‘the only thing I want to ask the young people to do is don’t be cynical’ and I hate cynicism, I think it doesn’t lead you anywhere good. Then he said, ‘believe me, if you work hard and be kind, amazing things will happen’ and that just blew my mind.
“It’s been a hard time since graduating, when you come to the industry as a fresh graduate, it’s tough. I’ve been lucky to have great clients but I’ve encountered some weird things as well and seen my work being ripped off and that can be really hard. So Conan’s words have become my motto and really kept me going.”
On December 2, Lu is launching her first US solo art show in San Francisco, as well as Walls360, a new start-up company she cofounded.
“Basically Walls360 is like a real world version of Flicker, where individual artists can upload their work and it ends up going onto a real wall,” Lu said. “It’s repositionable art work. The tagline of the company is ‘Arts for everywhere’.”
Source
Twenty-something Lu first found fame as the artist behind the Twitter Fail Whale - it’s her image Twitter users see when the site crashes. The company has since bought other illustrations by Lu, including the Goodnight Owl.
Now she has designed the Conan Pale Whale for O’Brien to ride triumphantly into the post-NBC Tonight Show era. He tweeted Lu personally to thank her.
“Thanks to @Yiying Lu, I can finally come clean about my terrible whale riding addiction,” the Tweet said.
O’Brien’s company Team Coco emailed Lu in August to see if she would be interested.
“I was so excited because I have been a fan of Conan for a long time, I just love him,” Lu said. “He is so random and funny but also such a kind person. It was dream come true when they contacted me - they’d already talked to Twitter about the idea and were really excited, and it was just a matter of whether I wanted to do it or not. I was like ‘hell yeah I want to do it, I have to do it - it’s Conan’.”
Lu said she first felt a connection with O’Brien when she watched his final episode of The Tonight Show.
“People really wanted to hear what he thought about what NBC did to him because they thought it was unfair,” Lu said. “He was asked, before you leave do you have any words for us, and he said ‘the only thing I want to ask the young people to do is don’t be cynical’ and I hate cynicism, I think it doesn’t lead you anywhere good. Then he said, ‘believe me, if you work hard and be kind, amazing things will happen’ and that just blew my mind.
“It’s been a hard time since graduating, when you come to the industry as a fresh graduate, it’s tough. I’ve been lucky to have great clients but I’ve encountered some weird things as well and seen my work being ripped off and that can be really hard. So Conan’s words have become my motto and really kept me going.”
On December 2, Lu is launching her first US solo art show in San Francisco, as well as Walls360, a new start-up company she cofounded.
“Basically Walls360 is like a real world version of Flicker, where individual artists can upload their work and it ends up going onto a real wall,” Lu said. “It’s repositionable art work. The tagline of the company is ‘Arts for everywhere’.”
Source
(Thanks Anne)
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