Artist Mochi Baby takes her art from the screen to the streets
Mochi Baby aka Chi Duong Sato splits her time between character designing for animated TV shows like ‘Archer,’ beautifying the city with murals, and more.
But it wasn’t until her teen years that her artistic career aspirations really came into focus. “I started to consider animation as a career during high school when a spokesperson from the Art Institute of Atlanta came to visit my graphic arts class, and told us about the degree programs they had there,” Sato says. “I remember that stuck with me, and I started to gather all the information I could on animation programs and degrees in college. After graduating high school, I got so eager to go to college I just skipped summer break and went right into my first quarter.” Two weeks after her college graduation, she was living in Atlanta and working as an illustrator on season one of FX Network’s first animated series, “Archer.”
As the show gained popularity and grew more detailed by design, Sato continued to rise through the ranks, from illustrator to character design department, then as head of the design team for a new animated show Floyd County Productions created called “Chozen.” Today, she still assists the “Archer” design team while working as a sort of transient designer at the studio on multiple projects.
When she’s not flexing her animation skills, Sato’s work can be seen out and about, too. She contributed to the mural revamp — with a piece showcasing Sato’s self-professed “cute, fun, girly, and colorful” style — on the outside of Hodgepodge Coffeehouse & Gallery and, a few years ago, created an annual gallery collective show (also at Hodgepodge) dubbed Degenerates. She’s also working on an app and collab called Lotus Eaters Club with local artist Killamari and has a project about rival girl gangs on wheels titled “Heels on Wheels” in the works.
When asked about keys to her success, Sato credits it to being easy to work with and her love of collaborating. “I used to ask my design team to ‘draw with an open mind,’ a mantra I always live by,” she adds. “There will always be feedback and notes, and to grow as an artist, you should be willing to listen and change.”