Yish

Artist · Lighting Designer · Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Clay, water, ink
— and light.

Small sculptures, quiet paintings and architectural lighting. Commissions, pet portraits and private clay lessons out of a studio in Greenpoint.

Commission a piece Lighting portfolio
Pastel painting of a small pale figure sitting alone on bright turquoise water
01

Clay Sculpture

Hand-built miniatures — cats, dogs and small creatures. Commissions from photos welcome.

Clay cat walking with its tail up
Walking cat · clay on wood base
Clay cat stretching, a butterfly on its tail
Stretch, with butterfly · clay on wood base
Clay cat leaping across a wooden base
Leap · clay on wood base
Carving a small clay figure by hand
In progress · carving details by hand
02

Landscapes · watercolor & pastel

Horizons, night water and the city at dusk.

Moonlit blue horizon with a faint glowing city across the water
[Title] · [medium, year]
Sunrise over a city skyline seen between two window mullions
[Title] · [medium, year]
Layered blue horizon with a thin band of pink light
[Title] · [medium, year]
Dark night valley with a line of distant orange lights
Death Valley · [medium, year]
Church spire and tower lit gold at dusk near Union Square
Greenwich Village, Union Square · [medium, year]
Snow-capped blue mountains above a pale, sparkling lake
[Title] · watercolor
03

Pet Portraits

Cats, dogs and the rest of the family, painted from your photos in watercolor, pastel or ink.

Fluffy white and grey cat with blue eyes lying on a patterned rust-colored rug
Winters on Rug · watercolor & ink
Small black cat with yellow eyes on a grey sidewalk among orange autumn leaves
Astoria Furball · watercolor, 2019
Black and white tuxedo cat with a Macchia name tag in front of bookshelves
Francesca’s Macchia · watercolor & ink
Orange and white cat resting on a blossoming branch, New Year greeting in Japanese
New Year card, cat in blossoms · watercolor
Commission a pet portrait From $200, depending on size · frame & shipping included
04

Ink & Pencil

Line drawings of the city in ink and pencil — economy of line, room for empty space.

Open sketchbook with a detailed ink drawing of a New York street
New York street · ink in sketchbook
Ink sketch of Union Square buildings held up against the real street
Union Square, drawn on site · ink in sketchbook
Pencil drawing of a Lower East Side street with a glowing gallery storefront and a lone figure
Lower East Side storefront · pencil
05

Lighting Design

Architectural, landscape and heritage lighting in New York, Beijing and Shanghai — from site survey and concept through fixture design and documentation.

Practice · United States

Projects under NDA — names withheld.

Looking up a sculptural white stairwell toward a skylight, a soft glow grazing the curved underside
Stair · concealed cove lighting
Small glass-walled focus room with a desk lit by a linear wall grazer
Workplace · focus room
Dark corridor with a wall of suspended point-source lights on a cable net
Workplace · feature wall
Elevator lobby with linear slot lights between ceiling baffles reflected in a polished terrazzo floor
Workplace · elevator lobby

Practice · Beijing & Shanghai, 2012–2015

Longevity Hill and its pagoda lit at dusk, reflected across Kunming Lake

Heritage & Landscape · Beijing · Z design & planning

The Summer Palace

Architecture and landscape lighting plus custom fixture design, read at three scales — texture up close, pattern and color in the middle view, outline and volume from across the lake. Site surveys, luminance measurement, strategy, renderings and luminaire drafts.

Tree-lined park road at dusk with warm lanterns and uplit branches

Landscape & Fixture Design · Beijing · Completed

Beihai Park

A lighting reconstruction: the lakeside road averaged just 0.27 lux, seven times below the local standard, with glaring street lamps. New pedestrian lanterns and landscape lighting, refined through repeated field tests.

Night view of a lit villa with a tower across a lawn

Architectural & Interior · Z design & planning

Selected Architectural Work

Facade, retail and interior lighting across Beijing — from a lakeside villa to the ZAOZUO flagship store.

Hotel restaurant rendering with pendant globes and lit shelving

Hospitality · Shanghai · LightingImages, 2014–2015

Hospitality Lighting

Lighting visualization for hotel guest rooms, lobbies, restaurants and bars, built on the interior designers’ renderings.

Parsons · MFA Lighting Design, 2016–2018

Silhouette of a person seated before a glowing rice-paper wall

Interior + Lighting Studio

Tea Room

Gallery with projections, a lit table display and wall panels

Exhibition · Sheila C. Johnson Design Center

The Ocean After Nature

Close-up of folded white paper crane wings meeting a carved wood arm with a brass inlay and screw

Luminous Object

Crane

Blue and magenta shadows of two people cast on a lit window screen

Installation · team of 22

Dissolve

Available for freelance

Most of my U.S. projects are under NDA, so only unnamed details are shown here. I take on freelance lighting design and coordination work — email me for pricing.

Email for pricing

Services

Concept & schematic design · Photometric analysis · Controls & dimming · Energy code compliance · Construction documents

Tools

AGi32 · COMcheck · Revit · Bluebeam · InDesign · PowerPoint
Black and white photo of two fluffy cats, an adult and a kitten, at the top of a staircase
Winters & Milktea, the studio supervisors

About

I’m Yish, a lighting designer in New York and an artist working from a small studio in Greenpoint. Lighting taught me to look at how a surface catches and holds light; clay, watercolor and ink are where I slow down and make things by hand.

I’m a lifelong pet lover, and my two cats, Winters and Milktea, keep me company in the studio (and often end up as my models). Painting and sculpting other people’s pets is my favorite kind of commission — every animal has its own character to catch.

Experience

Lumen ArchitectureLighting Designer
PHT Lighting DesignFreelance Lighting Designer
Renfro Design GroupJunior Lighting Designer
Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting DesignLighting Designer
Z Design & Planning, BeijingLighting Designer

Education

Parsons School of Design, New YorkMFA Lighting Design
Xiamen University, ChinaBFA Sculpture

Events & Markets

Find my booth at neighborhood markets and street fairs — free live pet portraits in ink, clay cats and paintings on the table.

Market table with framed pet paintings, white clay cats and ink pet portraits on coasters, with a Free Pet Portraits sign
Free pet portrait booth, Greenpoint · Photo: Rebecca Wang
Ink drawings of cats and dogs on white coasters laid out on a woven rug
Live ink pet portraits, drawn on the spot · Photo: Rebecca Wang

Commissions

Pet portraits in watercolor or ink, made from your photos.

From $200, depending on size · frame & shipping included

Clay & Watercolor Lessons

Private 1-on-1 lessons — sculpt your own clay cat or dog, or learn to paint in watercolor. Kids 10+ with a parent present; adults welcome. At the Greenpoint studio or your home.

$100 / hour · Brooklyn only

Let’s make something.

Commissions, lessons, or lighting collaborations — send a note.

atalantakatze@gmail.com

Instagram @atalantakatze