Jessie Wu creates first independent art magazine

Jessie Wu (10B) just published her own magazine, Heart, on April 26th (available online and in hard copy). The magazine features numerous artworks and articles from SMIC-I students and alumni. It’s nonprofit and mostly serves for the purpose of raising students’ interest in art.

According to Jessie, the name “Heart” is a “huge pun”. Besides the intended message that we need to feel art with our heart, “art is in heart, literally”, as the word H-E-A-R-T has A-R-T inside of it.

“Heart…dedicates towards raising more overall interest towards the art world as a whole, and appreciation for the art scene we have here at SMIC.” Jessie stated. “It was mainly inspired by my love for art, and motivated by the fact that great things like the art scene we have at this school often tend [to] go by unrepresented.” This drove Jessie to create the Heart magazine as a platform to give student artists the recognition they deserve. Moreover, the magazine also highlights more students’ art projects beyond just drawings, such as musical compositions and film projects organized by both students and teachers, etc.

The process of starting from scratch and putting everything together is laborious, especially when you’re the only one who’s producing the magazine. “I had to conduct my own interviews, ask (beg) people to submit articles or photos of their artwork, spend hours on In-design designing spreads and figuring out ways to make the magazine design as a whole a piece of art…develop a unifying aesthetic [theme], [go through] pain and suffering, learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator, and the list goes on,” Jessie shared.

Despite the demanding workload, Jessie was able to overcome the difficulties and successfully launch her own magazine. “Luckily, I am genuinely passionate about my magazine and I love putting way too much time and effort into it.” She proudly commented and offered her sincere thanks to the people who helped her through. “Thank you to Stella Cheung, Sophia Lee, Hannah Lee, Ray Chang, Luke Chong, and Theodore Schweiger for contributing to the first issue, and thank you Mrs. Hayes and Mr. Boldt for your endless support and guidance throughout the whole process!”

The 28 pages are already impressive and outstanding, but this is only the first issue of Heart. Jessie is planning to continue publishing her magazine, and her plans will become bigger in the future. “Right now I am working on the second issue of the magazine, and am working to get more coverage so that I can work on more issues over the summer. I’m planning on presenting it at the Humanities Symposium as well! I’m also in the process of looking for a sponsor to help me with the costs that come with printing.”

Jessie’s passion for art is truly remarkable, and we’ll wait and see how she will surprise us again with the second issue! Please support Jessie and the art students who are investing a lot of time pursuing both academics and art! They truly deserve our appreciation.

You can access Jessie’s magazine online here.

Featured Image — Jessie and her magazine “Heart” courtesy of Jessie Wu