Hi there! I’m Siti
Since I was young, I knew I didn’t want to live with regrets. I wanted my life’s journey to be extraordinary.
That might mean becoming a fine artist, marrying a foreigner, studying overseas, and living in a foreign country someday.
In my 20’s, I even wrote my future business name and the country that I was planning to move to someday. Sitting on a floor in my bedroom apartment, I wrote this on a piece of paper:
“Siti Nuriati Husin Studio, Los Angeles, California”
I dreamt of the impossible. To live in the United States in the second half of my life. Despite my life challenges, hurdles, and naysayers, I made it through.
It doesn’t come easy though. I worked hard to achieve my life’s goals. A lot of people, including family members, thought I was too ambitious or crazy for dreaming big.
I knew I was meant for more. But I didn’t know that this timid, shy, and creative girl from Malaysia would someday marry a guy from America and live in Los Angeles.
I planned out what my life would be like someday. I didn’t want to live a mediocre life. I know I didn’t want to follow what my culture dictates.
I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to prove to myself that I can visit and live in a foreign country. I was vocal about my life plans to my father about who I wanted to marry, where I wanted to continue my studies and where I wanted to live in the future.
My story has two folds, Malaysia and the USA.
MALAYSIA
Artist Mom
I was born and raised in Melaka (also spelled Malacca), the Historical City of Malaysia. As a child, I remember that my late grandma taught me Chinese. I went to Siang Lin kindergarten in Melaka. Drawing was my favorite pastime. I drew almost everything – characters from comic books, Malaysian rice fields, tiers of cakes, flowers and more.
I trace my artistic skills back to my mom.
My mom was the biggest influence in my art. Not only was she an amazing artist, her background was interesting. She was half Bugis and half Malay. My maternal grandfather came to Malaya from Acheh, Indonesia.
My mom was very creative, a superb cook, very meticulous, and fashionable. She mastered tempera paints, which she used straight from their tubes. She was able to make her realistic paintings appear to be painted with oil. As a child, I loved to watch my mom paint and wished that someday I could paint like her.
Love for Portraits
When I was about 13 years old, I was exposed to portraiture. I’d never heard of it before because it wasn’t taught in school. After seeing a classmate’s pencil portrait, something flickered inside of me and thought, ‘I can do that!’.
When I got home from school, I took my sketch book and a pencil, along with a magazine, and went to the backyard. I sat on a bench under a full green mango tree that my Dad had planted.
I flipped through the magazine’s pages and found a picture of Princess Diana. I eagerly sketched away my first ever pencil portrait!
Then I brushed up on my portrait skills on my own. Encouraged by my parents, I sent my artwork to a radio station.
In school, I was a school prefect. With the amount of responsibilities I had to carry, as an eldest daughter in the family and as a school prefect, I still had to set a good example to my siblings. That prevented me from drawing a lot in my free time.
(pic) Here’s the first portrait that I sketched back in the late 80’s!
Pursue Other Path
My application for a law course in university was turned down and I was devastated. The only choice I had at that time was to go to college. When deciding what to major in, I chose art.
But my parents respectfully disagreed with my choice, telling me that artists can’t make a living doing art. Reluctantly, I agreed with them and chose the Executive Secretaryship course that my mom suggested.
Even though they didn’t want me to major in art in college, they supported my art.
When I was a freshman in college, they brought me to the Central Market in Kuala Lumpur so I could show my pencil portrait works to the famous portrait artists there. I got inspired by the artists’ work and by the pastels they used to create realistic portraits.
But I had to put my paintings aside so I could focus on my school, with the aspiration that someday I’d pick it back up when the right time comes.
Sadly, my mom died suddenly when I was in my first year in college; I was barely 18 years old. It was the saddest day of my life!
Building an Art Business
Soon after college, I got a job as a secretary. In my free time, I learned about pastels. I saved up money to buy my first professional pastel set and a camera.
To brush up on my skills, I scheduled time on the weekends to go to the Central Market to observe the portrait artists’ work. I implemented some of their techniques on my own paintings.
One of my biggest challenges was to learn the business side of art. I wanted to know how to promote my art the right way; there were no books specifically written on selling art. So I applied what I learned in college to my ‘art business’. I began planning my goals for my future on paper.
A simple conversation with friends about what I do as an artist led to receiving portrait commissions from them. The joy that they showed after they received the finished portraits encouraged me to pursue my art even more.
Art Major vs Business Major
At the same time, I planned to continue my studies for a bachelor’s degree at a university in the United States. But I couldn’t secure a scholarship due to the economic downturn in 1997. I had no choice but to continue my studies locally.
Now that I was on my own I thought, should I major in art now? After some serious deliberations, I chose to major in Business instead, focusing on marketing, thinking I could use the knowledge to help promote my art.
For a number of years, I was working full time during the day, studying part time at night, and working on pastel portrait commissions during the weekends.
Long Distance Marriage
Meeting my husband online was the most memorable event in my life. I found my love on the Internet even before it became a thing. After chatting online for about 2 years, we made the decision to get married in Malaysia.
Since he was still in the U.S., I was in charge of planning the reception in Malaysia.
I wanted our wedding invitation card to be unique, something that would wow our guests. So I searched on the Internet, but I remember that resources were limited back then, unlike now where we have Pinterest, Flickr, and other sites. While I worked on our portrait in pastel to be used on the front page of the card, I also searched for a perfect cardstock, embellishments, and how to print the final cards, from start to finish.
I got a great response to my invitation cards and some guests even commissioned me for their portraits.
Full-time Artist
In early 2001, I left the working world for good right after we got married. After 6 years working as a secretary, for the first time, I felt totally free.
After a few months of ‘taking off’ work, I began to plan what to do with the rest of my career as I was also expecting our first baby and studying in college. My husband suggested that I start a portrait business from home.
Working from home in 2001 wasn’t as well known as it is today. However, I instantly fell in love with the idea because I could work on the things I loved while raising my newborn baby.
It was my turning point; I regained my focus and I aimed to finish my studies and start a home-based company taking portrait commissions full time. The foundation that I had made me confident that I could run my own business and be my own boss!
Shortly after I graduated, with a degree in Business Administration (Marketing) from MARA University of Technology in 2003, I had an opportunity to do my first solo exhibition, ‘Through My Eyes’, a portrait exhibition in pencil, pastel and colored pencil at a local gallery in Melaka.
As a result, I got my first newspaper feature! That was the start of my professional journey as an artist.
Opportunity from the UK Author
In 2005, the author of the book, “Madonna in Art”, emailed me asking if I was interested in having my Princess Diana’s portraits, which he found on my profile at Artwanted.com, featured in his new book project.
Talk about the power of the internet! This wouldn’t have been possible if my husband didn’t make the account for me so my portrait works could be found online.
I felt that this once in a lifetime opportunity would bring a brighter future to my art career so I said ‘yes’. He also commissioned a specific portrait of Princess Diana for the book.
My wonderful husband is my biggest supporter in my life. But for the first five years, we lived separately and only met twice a year, as we both had commitments in schools, a job, and a business. Even though my husband was not living with us all the time, we communicated with each other every single day.
I was raising our eldest son alone in Malaysia and running a home-based business taking portrait commissions. However, art was not only my business but it also kept me occupied so I didn’t feel sad for not being with my husband.
While preparing the paintings for the book project, I was also preparing for the biggest event in my life!
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dream Came True
Life in Another Country
In early 2006, I, and our then 4½ year old son, moved to Los Angeles from Melaka to reunite with my husband, after living separately for nearly 5 years. I was elated that my dream to go to the United States would finally come true. I achieved the dream I had planned and I thanked God for it.
Portraits of our son in colored pencil hung in our apartment in Los Angeles.
At the time, I had one goal in mind when I moved to the United States from Malaysia; to be a successful portrait artist.
International Feature
While adjusting to my new life here in Los Angeles, I continued to finish my portrait paintings of Princess Diana for the book. With the move, I secured my second feature. In 2007, my Princess Diana’s portraits, both in pastel and colored pencil, were featured in Mem Mehmet’s new coffee table book, “Diana in Art”. What excited me the most was not only that I was included along with 150 other artists from around the world, but it was also my first international feature!
Being in a new country and not knowing anyone yet, I strived to do more publicity for myself and my work. Once I signed the contract that my paintings would be published in the book, I sent out emails to local newspapers and magazines locally and in Malaysia. As a result, I got featured in the local newspaper, the Valley News, and in Malaysia two national women magazines, Nona and Mingguan Wanita, featured my story and my Princess Diana’s portraits.
In a single year, 2007, I got featured in three countries’ publications: the United States, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
Leaving Portraiture and Portrait Business
However, I decided to leave portraiture in 2008 for religious reasons. You must be thinking, what a waste to work hard all those years just to leave it behind after I got all that publicity.
Honestly, leaving portrait painting behind wasn’t easy for me as I loved this genre very much. I remember asking myself, “What am I going to call myself now?” I didn’t know what I’d do next.
Around the same time, in 2008, I was searching for unique Islamic cards over the Internet to send to my family in Malaysia.
Disappointed with my findings, I thought, “What if I created my own greeting cards?” A light bulb went off and I started toying with the idea. Greeting cards were my new calling. I chose to portray my still life artwork.
For the first time I was excited about painting subjects other than people’s portraits as I began paying more attention to my environment. Leaving portraiture has opened my eyes to the beauty of other subjects. The best part, they’re not as complicated as portraits.
Portrait Studio in Our Apartment
My portrait journey started with Princess Diana’s portrait and ended with its international publication!
Family’s Homeschooling Journey
As a family we decided to become more religious. As I started to get closer to Allah and learned the Quran, my husband shocked me by asking me to wear a hijab. He wanted us to homeschool our son as he wanted him to be able to pray 5 times a day. Not only that, my husband decided that I was the best teacher to teach our son the Quran even though I myself needed to relearn it. That was the new path we took as a family and my new role as a Learning Coach to our son.
My family is everything to me. Even though I was responsible for many tasks at home, homeschooling, teaching Quran and Islamic Studies, cooking and baking from scratch, because of my training as a secretary, I managed my tasks efficiently.
After I quit portraits, I explored multiple creative outlets. In my free time, I created greeting cards, corner bookmarks, and produced video tutorials for my YouTube channel with the help of my husband, who is my video editor and website developer.
As a homeschool mom, I learned alongside my son while attending to our newborn baby. I love to study and took my first online business program for the first time. I geeked out on learning how to design beautiful websites, enhanced my photography skills, learned copywriting skills and how to produce videos. I also found a new skill that I never knew I had; I became a voiceover talent for the Malay language with a local company in Los Angeles!
(pic) Homeschool office room setup
Army Mom
I was never prepared to be an empty nester until my eldest son decided to join the army during Covid. Although we supported and respected his decision, I was the one who was badly affected by the separation. I experienced separation again at a whole new level.
The first year was rough for me as I was not used to being separated from my children. As a homeschool mom for over a decade, my family is so important to me and I feel really blessed to be able to homeschool my children. I learned a great deal putting absolute trust in God, as He will take care of my loved ones.
I also discovered that art has helped me go through the difficult times in my life; my mom passed away, I lived far away from my husband, and had my son join the army. I firmly believe that creating art has played a major role in my entire life, it helped me find inner peace when I faced mountains of difficult struggles in my life.
The most valuable thing in my life after moving to America is my family and I becoming practicing Muslims. I believed so much in the goodness of this country that I decided to become a citizen not too long ago.
FREE WORKBOOK
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While my personal goal was to go to America in my younger years, now that I’m living my dream, I set a bigger goal. In one of my homeschooling sessions with my youngest son, I was struck by a question to look for the national flowers of the world. And now, I’m working on what I believe is the ultimate project of my career as a fine artist:
The World’s National Flowers Project
Little did I know when I started this project that this project would help me to uncover my own Malay origins. I want to help people who have immigrated to the United States connect with their roots and their heritage through my national flower paintings.
I feel so blessed to have this artistic skill that lets me help people beautify their homes and remember their stories for generations to come.
My journey taught me my own
“Self-Taught Artist’s Recipe”:
- Make art that matters to you.
- Follow your instincts.
- Invent your own way.
- Create interesting life events—because you only live once in this world!
I hope you enjoyed reading my life’s story. I am proof that you can do it, and I want you to know that your story matters, too.
What’s Your Immigrant Story?
Share your personal or family story with The World’s National Flowers Project for a chance to have it featured on my YouTube channel. The top three submissions will receive a museum-grade print of the USA’s national flower—a tangible symbol of belonging.
This is an invitation to join the World’s National Flowers Club as a Founding Storyteller. As a member, you’ll get the first look at the national flower painting that will finally give your heritage a voice, exclusive behind-the-scenes access to my process, and stories you won’t hear anywhere else.
By entering your info, you’ll be signed up for Siti Nuriati Studio’s list. You’ll receive exclusive news, only for subscribers, in your inbox. Unsubscribe anytime. See Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.