Seattle Artist Karen Chang Reclaims 'Tigress' After Leaving Tech for Art

Karen Chang was meant to be a painter: It just took a Ph.D. in social psychology, six years in tech, and some encouragement from her therapist for her to realize that. She hadn't picked up a brush since she was 8 years old, but during a stretch of depression in graduate school, the Seattle-based, Chinese-American artist took up acrylic painting, losing (and finding) herself in the canvas each night after returning home from her job as a UX researcher at Google.

By early 2025, she decided it was time to go all in as an artist. "Finally, I just couldn't take it anymore. I was so burnt out from work, but then I'd paint for fun for hours and come out of it recharged. Time stopped when I painted," she shared. 

Now, she's seeing her lifelong process of becoming an artist resonate with audiences through her first solo show, "Karen Chang: Metamorphosis," at Gallery B612 in Pioneer Square.

Chang's colorful, surreal paintings, three of which sold out at her show's opening, depict bold women surrounded by natural elements: animals and flowers and water. She named Soey Milk, a Korean artist whose portraits express erotic, serene femininity and are rich with color and symbolism, as one of her influences.

"I create these voices for each figure," Chang said of her process. "The women [I paint] aren't who I am. They're who I'm reaching for." She spends a lot of time playing with color, which she finds vibrant and rich with emotion and energy. "Then, the natural elements ground the figures in a context. I like certain animals, and the feelings they evoke."

Tigers in particular have strong significance in Chang's work, stemming from aspects of her upbringing. She said, "Mǔ lǎo hǔ — Chinese for 'tigress' — is what my family called me [as a pejorative] when I was too willful, too headstrong, too much." Depicting women riding on the backs of tigers in her work has been a way to reclaim a once-shameful nickname, and a refusal to make herself small to please others.

Though she admitted preparing for and executing a solo show was grueling and required exacting discipline, Chang has been moved by how audiences respond to her work. "I'm glad my art is interactive, that people see and want to be seen." In particular, she was surprised that numerous women approached her, brimming with stories of their own fraught relationships with their mothers and experiences of being taught to be small.

And what's next for Chang? Artistically, she wants to continue exploring her internal growth on canvas in a nonlinear way, as happens in real life. Her website declares, "I paint … every stage of the road, including the ones we keep coming back to." She hopes to experiment with impressionism and bold contrast in her paintings, which she likened to the "duality of being Asian-American: … between two worlds. Not either/or, but both." She wants to continue to make art for a living, to keep finding opportunities to share her work.

Chang hopes "Metamorphosis" will leave visitors inspired to "look inside themselves rather than going through the motions," and to follow their passions. "We're all going to suffer in life anyway, so whatever you're suffering for? Make it count!"