TAMPA, Fla. — Emily Tan begins every piece of art not with a paintbrush, but with a saw. Instead of buying canvases, Tan makes her own from scratch, beginning with chopping up planks of wood — a process that she says helps make her abstract art feel more authentic.

“I feel like there’s not as much intention behind it because I didn’t sweat and put it together and cut and re-cut,” Tan said of using premade canvases. “Every time you start something you have a little bit of an idea. But I think kind of letting go and letting it tell you what it’s going to be is the main start of my process.”

Tan has been an artist her whole life. She started taking art classes when she was in kindergarten. But Tan said the pastime soon became a form of therapy as she navigated being one of two Asian students at her school in New York.

“I literally wouldn’t use red because I used to get made fun of so much if I wore red,” she said. “People would pull their eyes back. They’d just be so cruel and I’m like, for wearing a color? These are deep-rooted, traumatic things.”

For Tan, art became a necessary escape. She said that in her culture, it’s not common to talk about mental health struggles. Roughly 8% of Asian Americans will seek mental health services, compared to 18% of the general population, according to the National Latino and Asian American Study.

“I’ve had a lot of loss in my life that we shouldn’t have had and I think a lot of it stemmed around being different and not being able to talk to your family about it,” Tan said.

Now, as an adult and professional artist, Tan said she tries to incorporate her Chinese-Filipino heritage into her work. In one piece, she featured a piece of fabric her grandfather made in the Philippines.

Tan said it's a piece of her identity that she’s proud of but hasn’t always showcased in her paintings.

“When I create art it’s all coming from a subconscious, deep area," she said. "It can be trauma, it can be nostalgia, it can be happy moments, sad moments, anything. But the feeling I want them to have is inspiration to continue doing whatever they’re doing, get out of something that they don’t want to do anymore, just be inspired to be your true, authentic self and let that flourish.”

During Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Tan said she wants her fellow Asian Americans to be proud of who they are and where they come from and support each other.

“The art community especially can be a competitive one, so let other people’s light shine even if yours feels a little dim that day,” she said. “Supporting each other is really the only way that any of us are going to make it, especially being a minority.”

Tan got her degree in art from the University of Tampa. During one of her last semesters, she studied under her first Asian woman art teacher — a person Tan says gave her the confidence to break into the abstract art scene.