Art After MIT: A Blogger Collab by Yuliya K. '18

I was watching TikToks on a long flight from Chicago. My feed now consists mostly of small artists in similar stages of their careers. We’re all trying to stand out in the art world. 

One particular TikTok caught my attention: It was a young artist revealing a gorgeous landscape painting. But also: a familiar face! Did I know this creator? No way!

Indeed, the artist was Allan G. ‘20, a fellow Admissions blogger! The algorithm had reconnected us mid-air. I messaged Allan immediately, and we chatted for the first time in 8 years since my graduation. 

Turns out, both Allan and I are pursuing art now, aiming to sustain ourselves in an unfamiliar industry. Neither one of us expected this upon graduation, but we aren’t the only alums making art full-time. 

Allan and I didn’t think artist was a valid career post-MIT. Our hope is that this blog can encourage you to follow this (or any other) unconventional path. 

Here’s how we got here. 

Allan’s POV

After graduating in 2020 (6 whole years ago 🤯), I ended up taking a gap year. For continuity’s sake, the last blog that I (and Danny) wrote mentioned that we would be starting a computer graphics graduate program in the following fall semester. Due to covid, we actually ended up deferring our spots and ultimately not attending.

Here is a quick timeline of what actually did happen during these last 6 years:

2020-2021: I decided to use the time of the pandemic lockdown to deep dive into something I had wanted to learn for a while – stylized 3D modeling for animation. I took online 3D modeling classes taught by industry professionals and spent around 9 months 3D modeling and texturing for probably 60ish hours per week. It was intense, but so much fun and fulfilling! 

2021-2023: Eventually, I had to come to terms with it not being feasible, in the short term, for me to find a job in the animation industry. Most of the animation jobs are on the West Coast or abroad, and that wasn’t a move I was ready/willing/able to make at the time. So I started my career in a field that was more remote-friendly, the classic post-MIT job choice – software engineering. Specifically, I worked in a startup, building a web app enabling easy sharing and review/revision for 3D modeling (think Figma or Google Drive for 3D). I was happy that the skills I learned during my gap year could still pay off here. 

2023-2026: After almost 2 years working at that startup, where I gained very valuable web development skills, I decided to take the next quintessential software engineering career step – working at a big tech company. I was lucky enough to land an apprenticeship role, where I got to work on backend engineering for large-scale deployment systems. 

A few months ago: I was included in – what sadly seems to be another quintessential step of a software engineer’s career these days – a company-wide reduction-in-force. Similar to when I decided to take lockdown as an opportunity to pursue an artistic skill, I decided to take this RIF as both a much-needed break and a bet on myself to pursue painting! I had been mainly painting digitally in my free time for the past 10 years, but for this adventure, I decided to go back to my roots of traditional art. I have always been endlessly inspired by the hand-painted backgrounds of Studio Ghibli, so I did research to demystify the materials and techniques behind their magic! I stumbled upon a gold mine of a tutorial by Yoichi Nishikawa, a real live Ghibli painter, and days later found myself with paintbrush in hand, learning to paint clouds. 

Present: I have been painting almost daily, loving every second of it, and in parallel, working towards monetizing my art by posting consistently on social media and applying to art fairs. The goal is to see if I can make something out of this passion, whether a new career, a side hustle, or otherwise. Fingers crossed my paintings and prints will sell at my first local Miami art fair happening next week! And, as mentioned in the intro, Yuliya found my art on TikTok and reached out to me. So here I am, with my story and timeline caught up to the present, back on the MIT blogs <3. 

I am not sure where this road will take me, but even if I will need to hop back on the software-engineering-job-search train, one thing I learned is: taking the Long Road is okay! 

During my time at MIT and even that first year after graduating, I felt a large pressure to choose the “right” major and to get the “right” job straight out of college (Danny and I wrote about that pressure a lot on these blogs). But looking back, even if becoming a software engineer wasn’t what I envisioned for myself initially, I gained many valuable things from my 5 years as an engineer: a growth mindset (the seed of which was planted during course 6 classes at MIT, but could only flourish through real-world experience), technical skills and a resume that I can always lean back on, and financial stability/runway to pursue this admittedly risky passion I once thought I would never be able to! If you want to follow along my journey, you can do so on Instagram or TikTok or both (shameless plug :P).

Yuliya’s POV

1.5 years ago, and 6.5 years post-graduation, I returned to the blogs to announce that I was now a beading artist. You can catch up on how that happened after a career in health journalism and communications here.

I’ve been a full-time artist for 2 years now, and the journey has been delightful! To date, I’ve participated in 50+ exhibits and about 10 markets (including an art fair in Chicago’s Grant Park—where the famous Bean is). In August, I had my first solo show, titled “Not a Patient Woman,” highlighting the issues and joys of social justice-focused communities.

Opening night of “Not a Patient Woman,” my first solo exhibit at Art City (Chicago)

“The Gayest Place in the World,” displayed at the 2026 PRIDE exhibit at Jackson Junge Gallery (Chicago)

Today, I’d love to share some of my recent work with y’all.

Liberty’s Next Generation (2026) — 11,413 beads

Venus (2026) — 11,956 beads

Tired (2026) — 9,600 beads

Sirens in Love (2026) — 12,150 beads

Starless Night (2026) — 9,312 beads

Protected (2026) — 9,000 beads

Out of the Darkness (2025) — 3,360 beads

Chicago’s Navy Pier Fireworks (2026) — 10,956 beads

For more beaded art, follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and/or YouTube @yuliyaklochan. You can DM me on Instagram too, or reach out to yuliya [at] mit [dot] edu. My website is www.yuliyaklochan.com.