Flower Mound resident and influencer Alissa Teo always had an artist's inclination.
Drawn to making sketches as a kid, she realized from an early age she could use her talent with pencil and paper to make new friends and overcome her shyness.
“I realized I was captivating people through my silly sketches in class,” Teo said. “ And that's when I started realizing, 'oh, people are drawn to this.' I don't have to just say, ‘hi, my name's Alyssa, I would wanna be your friend,’ I just start sketching. I hear they like Spider-Man. I'm gonna sketch this for them.”
Years later, Teo has successfully captivated millions with her art — not with sketches, but rice.
Online, Teo is mostly known through her Fried Rice Art social media channels that consist almost entirely of Teo’s unique form of art. First, she carefully arranges colored rice on a board. Then she films herself throwing the design into the air, where it retains the image for a split second. She slows down the video, sets it to music and posts for fans to enjoy.
The images can be as simple as a heart or as complex as full portraits.
At home with the artist
On the day we visited her home and studio, Teo was making something simple: a soccer ball in celebration of the World Cup. Her family was rooting for Portugal — especially Cristiano Ronaldo, who played his last World Cup match in Arlington this year.
“Who's beautiful for me to look at on the field now?” Teo laughed.
Grabbing a bag of black rice from a white storage bin originally meant to store pet food, Teo hurries back to her studio. At her work table, next to a shelf of multicolored dyes, she carefully places different colored grains onto a tracing of the ball, rulers and tweezers close at hand for exact touches.
She’s working in the mid-afternoon — a rarity for the artist, wife and full-time mother of three.
“Being a mom never ends,” Teo said. “So once everyone's in bed, 9, 10 p.m., that's when I start doing art pieces way into the night. And sometimes… I have to cut it off at like 3, 4 a.m. Start the process again the next day.”
Before making a living off her art, Teo had a career in occupational therapy. Things were going well until her middle child began suffering from health complications. The situation pushed her to ditch full-time work and transfer to full-time motherhood.
It was then, while cooped up in the house with her family that Teo said she encountered what she called one of the best creativity tools there is — boredom.
“Having that time to think about, OK, we're in this house, like, we're not able to go out a whole lot, let's kind of use everyday items and just have fun,” Teo said.
So, for entertainment, Teo and her children would dye rice and create “sensory bins,” containers filled with tactile material like beans or pasta that give children a way to have fun while developing cognitive skills and stimulating senses like touch.
Giving rice art a go
“With my background of [occupational therapy] rice was always something that could be used as a sensory experience,” Teo said. “We were dying it together. We were playing with it. And that was something, it was just something small that just gave joy to my kids and I during that time.”
Around the same time, Teo felt the artist’s itch to create and began doing some research into rice art. She had the rice, she had the dyes.
So, why not give it a try?
“I wasn't the one that created rice art. But I do think I made it a little, I kind of mastered it in a way where it's more complex and kind of going beyond what's possible,” Teo said.
A Golden “1 million subscriber” YouTube trophy on her office desk stands as a gleaming confirmation.
Going viral
Early in her content creation career, Teo performed her art for fun and friends. Consistent internet popularity didn’t hit until her sister convinced her to download TikTok.
“I went to sleep, and then I woke up, and I was texting my sister," Teo said. "I was like, is it supposed to have millions of views? She was like, sometimes it will, but it's not for long. Like other things will catch up, and so the virality is just only for a brief moment.”
But the views didn’t stop, and it wasn’t long before major brands came knocking on Teo’s door. Since beginning content creation, Teo has worked with brands including Crayola, ESPN, FIFA, Lego, and more.
And, of course, there’s Fried Rice Art merch available online.
While the money and fame have been nice, what Teo says she cherishes more than anything is the memories she’s been able to make, like taking her son to see Portugal to play against Spain during the World Cup.
“It's those special memories I can have with my kids, my family, because I'm able to provide for them and that's something amazing,” Teo said. “All those brand deals I've done, all that money I've earned. What's the point in the end when you can't bring that happiness to your family?
For those who want to be the next, Fried Rice Art Teo has some simple advice: Don’t do it for the views or potential fame.
“I mean, it's possible, but it's also very hard to achieve now that everyone wants it. And I would say don't focus on that,” Teo said.
“Focus on things that you love and what makes you happy. And that's gonna translate into whatever that creative outlook or aspect is, whether it's art, music, dance, et cetera.”
