ABOUT

The way I see it, being an artist is like being a gardener. It’s impossible to do gardening without being in a constant dialogue with the weather, environment and wildlife, things already in place that are not the gardener’s creation. They are things that come with the location, a land and ecosystem that has existed (yin) long before the gardener started planting, pruning and putting in their own work (yang).

As an artist, my journey began long before I was born, with my parents’ desire to provide their child with opportunities to explore the arts. That was preceded by their journeys, which rose out of a rich history that I’m still discovering and resonating with today. What was already in place before I even held a marker or touched a keyboard is just as integral to my journey as the hours I’ve spent within my lifetime training, learning and growing my practice.

And like a gardener, there’s a home and life outside the garden, but the way one views their gardening as a practice varies. Gardens can be a place of community, resources, beauty… As long as someone works the land and sustains the practice, there is always more to share and give, and in return sustain the gardener and the garden.

This shop is an extension of where I am in my creative journey. After years of continuously exploring different mediums and ideas, from traditional mediums to digital art and installation art, I realized sustaining a creative practice is something that sustains me. Sharing my work by setting up this shop is part of building an ecosystem for myself as an artist.

A lot of my work joins found materials—collected surfaces like cardboard panels from my retail job, supplies that have been collected and survived multiple residential moves, used glass containers, etc—with ideas I’m encountering and exploring in my life experiences. This includes people in my life who are creatives as well, and as this shop space grows, I hope to use it to support other artists, too.