BECOMING XINYI XAN
dearest friend + changing weather season, 🍂 I wanted to write to apologize for any confusion I’ve caused by my recent name change from @piquetures/Nomi to @xinyixan/XinYi… ☕️
I first adopted my alias Nomi at quite a young age when I was just being introduced to the internet. Although it was a name I had selected on a whim, it quickly became my “brush name” (my term for a visual artist’s equivalent of a pen name 🎨) and initiated my unintended double life — as ShinYi, the biology student, software engineer, and unassuming-quiet Asian girl, and as Nomi, the conceptual photographer, daydreaming illustrator, and crazy-passionate art director.
Over time, as the internet integrated into every aspect of our lives and the lines began to blur between those one would consider “online” versus “offline” friends, my acquaintances split into two distinct groups — those who knew me as Nomi and those who knew me as ShinYi. Whenever I felt brave enough to share my art with ShinYi’s friends, I’d become overcome with dread, feeling as if I needed to (for some unknown reason) defend why I had this clandestine nickname. And whenever I needed to introduce Nomi’s friends to ShinYi’s, I didn’t know how to manage that group dynamic. Do I make both parties refer to me by one or the other? Or do I let them just call me whatever they wished with the assumption that it wouldn’t be confusing? 😱 Despite…
