Your Secret Weapon

I remember when I was a kid, my teacher asked us to draw or describe what we wanted to be when we grow up. And I remember drawing a picture of a French guy with a mustache and a beret with a paintbrush in one hand and a palette in the other, standing in front of an easel. Even at a young age, I’ve always identified as an artist. Although my mustache never came in, and I don’t own a beret, nor have I ever painted any masterpieces; I still identify as an artist, it just that my choice of medium is different.

As a graduate from University of Wisconsin Madison with a Computer Science degree, logical thinking was my training. That logical thinking has carried me in every aspect of what I consider my now art. You see cooking is really just a blend of flavors from different ingredients, and knowing the order of operation to add things in. Photography and videography are highly mathematical in nature. All of them consist of certain rules to play in. Once you are comfortable with the rules, there is an open playground of expression. 

And that is art.

My name is En Tao, and I am a self-taught everything. I never had any formal training in how to use a camera, or went to a culinary school to learn how to cook. What I know stemmed from passion and the willingness to explore. I was fortunate that I was encouraged to explore.