(upbeat music) - My name is Ottavia Huang.

I'm a watercolor artist.

I'm currently an artist in residence at Arlene's Artist Material in Albany.

I was born and raised in Indonesia and for some time I was studying and working in Taiwan.

And then I moved here with my family.

Actually my boyfriend at the time.

Gossip.

Gossip.

No I'm kidding.

He got like a job transfer to Malta.

At first I was so excited because I thought it was Malta, Europe but then it's small New York and I was like, oh, I Google it and then oh okay.

It is something completely different than I thought.

But then I ended up really loving it here because I met like many new friends.

And then the art scenes is amazing in the capital region.

We moved here in 2018.

I didn't really have like a formal education in arts.

My background was civil engineering, business and the closest to art I got was my doctoral study in creative industries research.

So when we moved here, I took a career break.

So I got the chance to really explore art.

I found a watercolor class by Kevin Kuhne who happened to be like a regional watercolor artist.

He's amazing.

I was lucky that I stumbled into his class in a local community center.

And then since then I met people who connected me to other things.

One thing led to another, and here I am.

In my work, it usually depicts those scenes from daily lives.

It could be landscapes, it could be urban scenes.

The one that I love to capture the most is special little moments that happens in our everyday life that makes it special.

For example, it could be like an afternoon in a coffee shop and then the light coming through the windows and stuff.

Tender moments for example, like an older couple doing crossword puzzles together or like friends catching up.

Those are the things that usually are in my sketches.

With watercolor, it gives me the flexibility that you can use it to paint on the go.

You just need like a small palette, like a cup of water and then you can just lock it in your backpack and then go to places.

I love how fluid it is and how there's some sort of unpredictability in it.

(peaceful music) I really love this one piece that I did of a mural in North Pearl Street.

What drew me first to that mural was the colors.

It's like bright yellow and then with a lot of details.

So I was just there sitting in the corner of the street drawing with a couple of local artists.

And then as I get into working on the detail of that piece, then I realize there's so much more than what you see because they have like a little message here and there.

And when I go back and learn more about the mural and the artist and the message they're trying to convey is it's just beautiful because from that work, they want to show that, oh, I see you, I see every one of you and everyone is important.

So that is probably one of my favorites.

And another one would be, I think it was in Uncommon Ground in Stuyvesant Plaza.

They just newly opened.

And then what attracted me at first was like this work by a local artist.

She's doing an exhibition there, so there's like a pop of red on the wall and I loved it.

So I just sat there and just start sketching.

But then I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I overheard a conversation of like two friends just sitting just not too far from me.

And she was sharing like some happy moments in her life.

Oh, I just met a new person and I thought that was beautiful.

Art, it grounds me.

It gave me the chance to really just immerse myself working on something.

You can call it like a meditation if you like, but with more work.

It also connects me with other people because coming from a different area of the world, there's so many differences probably that creates barriers while connecting to others.

But through art, it seems like all those barriers just broken down.

And then we just connect through what we love.