I had the joy of talking with a dear friend the other day on her podcast (more info soon!) And as it often does, our conversation sparked further thoughts and ideas. So I’m trying something new. I will be posting short videos ~ a parking lot of thoughts/ideas about art and life, and why creativity (in its myriad of forms) matters…
Seattle
Upcoming Feature Show
Art For Sale, Exhibition, Gallery
The Seen & The Unseen World – 60″x 36″ Acrylic mixed media on wood panel
I have been steeped in learning over the past few years, and am excited to share this new body of work. My latest series explores formal and informal grid compositions using a limited palette.
Just a Moment
Columbia City Gallery*
March 23 – May 8, 2022
March 23 – May 8, 2022
Opening reception: Sat. March 26 from 5-7pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11-6pm (or by appointment)
* While this is my annual feature show,
Columbia City Gallery exhibits my work year round.
Come As You Are – 24″x 24″ Oil & cold wax on wood panel
When We Were One
Art For Sale, creativity, family, inspiration, Narrative, Origin story, StoryEverything I create is about exploring the stories I’ve inherited and the stories I’m passing down. I make art to better understand my place in this flow of cultural inheritance and legacy.
When I was pregnant, I had a book that gave weekly updates about the fetus development. I remember reading one week that if I was having a girl, my body was creating all the eggs she will ever carry.
Having worked for 12 years as a crisis counselor, and knowing what I know about inter-generational trauma, I didn’t take this news lightly. So I took that week off, and reflected on what it means to be creating descendants whom I may never meet.
“When We Were One” deals specifically with this week, being pregnant with my daughter ~ and more expansively, considers the bloodlines that connect us all.
Here is a short video where I reflect on what this piece means to me…
Thoughts on Inspiration
creativity, education, inspiration, process, StoryMy dear friend Carolyn Autenrieth asked fellow artist friends to reflect on the role of inspiration in their work for her high school art class. So I wrote out some ideas in my journal this morning. While this may be too long for what she’s needing, it’s the perfect length for a blog post.
A few weeks ago, I made this inspiration board on my phone ~ a visual reminder of things that I find beautiful. The images could be of anything, not necessarily art.
I took screen shots of my Pinterest boards and wrote down words that inspire me. What do I love? What are ideas, objects, symbols, activities, places, hobbies that make me feel alive? It could be anything that makes me feel the whole hearted joy of my daughter in this picture. Seeing these images and words together, I started to notice common themes, in terms of colors, ideas, textures, and design elements that I’m drawn to.
So pay attention to your attention, because it’s trying to tell you something. There’s something here that you love. What is it? What’s with all the doors? Why do I love rust so much? Why do I feel drawn to the textures and design found in nature. Sometimes the answers are obvious. Sometimes I don’t discover until much later why I find the texture of tree bark or aerial landscapes so compelling.
Some people might not see the beauty in these images…but to me, they’re exquisite! I want to make art that makes me feel the way I feel when I look at my board. This is what inspires me. And when I’m inspired, I feel creative…and the work starts flowing.
It all begins with inspiration.
The whole goal of art is to create something that is unique to you. So your job as an artist is to get really clear about what you love and why. From there, making art is just a series of Yes/No decisions. When you’re clear about what inspires you, it will come across in your work. And people will be able to feel it. Even if they don’t personally find rusty doors beautiful, they will feel my love of the door coming through in the painting. And that, to me, is the beauty and power of art.
Creating this inspiration board made me deeply consider what I find beautiful. And then, I set it aside. The next day, I pulled out some paper and just decided to paint something that brings me joy. I had no plan, no end goal in mind.
A couple hours later, this painting emerged. And I could clearly see elements from my board coming through.
Custodian of the World Within
So…
Notice what brings you joy.
Get clear about what you love, and why.
Make art that makes your heart sing.
Remember that inspiration is everywhere.
The Paths We Travel
Exhibition, family, Gallery, Narrative, Origin story, Story
Artist Statement
As a kid, I found it comforting to think about how wildly the universe had to conspire just so I could be here. I would lie in bed and think about all the serendipitous moments that had to happen just so my Tanzanian father and South Korean mother could meet, halfway around the world, and have me. I would think about the epic stories of love, betrayal, sacrifice, migration, survival ~ all the random encounters and deliberate life choices extending back generations that had to happen just so my parents could meet and have me.
And as I got older, made friends and met their families, I realized that everyone has stories that are epic in scope ~ even if their families have lived in the same town for generations.
Every one of us is the embodiment of the life stories of our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors. We carry their stories forward with us, whether we’re conscious of them or not. But make no mistake ~ we are all here because of these stories.
Making art is how I make sense of these stories I’ve inherited about who I am and where I come from…and the stories I’m now passing down. As a mother, I feel compelled to think about where I stand in this flow of cultural inheritance and legacy. These paintings reflect the internal and external landscapes that have been traversed just to reach this point where our paths could cross in this gallery, in this city, at this moment in time…
Currently on exhibit at
Columbia City Gallery (Seattle)
through Jan. 5, 2020.
The Stories We Inherit
Film, Installation, Origin story, Story, Works In Progress
Backstory: Couple months ago, a friend invited me to create a piece for a project she’s working on about dimensional wax pieces. While most of my encaustic paintings are textured and could be considered “dimensional,” I really wanted to push myself to get off the wood panel and see what I could create in 3D space. She asked for a piece that reflected the themes of cultural inheritance and legacy I explored in my film, A Lot Like You.
This prompt reminded me that in April 2018, I pulled out the transcripts of family stories I collected for my film — and, with no clear end goal in mind, I started cutting up and inking the shredded transcripts…trusting that they would some day find their way into a piece…
4/17/18 – These interviews I transcribed with my family elders on Kilimanjaro were the heart of my film. Even on the page, my Aunts’ stories are arresting. Now these transcripts will form the foundation of my next piece…
4/20/18 – As an encaustic artist, it’s rare that I can work on an art piece outside my studio. so I’m relishing being able to ink the shredded paper wherever I please. Especially on a day like today when I’m feeling pretty lousy, I can binge watch Theaster Gates & Andy Goldsworthy docs while reclining on our sofa, wrapped in a cozy blanket and sipping coffee.
4/20/18 – End of Day 3…inking each piece by hand is a slow and meditative process. 7 hours straight today. Time to switch gears and walk the dog!
FAST FORWARD TO 2019…
2/14/19 – …and now, for something completely different!! Spent the past 2hrs cleaning the studio, getting ready to work with encaustic, paper, wire and fabric. Won’t have anything finished to show for the next few weeks…but i’ll be posting detail shots of this piece in progress. (just for the record, i have Absolutely No Idea where this is going. i’m just committing to experimenting with 3D play.) 🙂
2/14/19 – The motif of yesterday’s painting of chain links takes root as I finally find a use for the shredded transcripts of family interviews that I inked last year. While I don’t have much experience constructing dimensional pieces–I do remember making paper chains in grade school…
2/15/19 – Spending all day making encaustic paper chains out of shredded family transcripts. 5hrs down, 4hrs to go…
2/21/19 – I started the day making strands of orange & red, but then decided to limit my palette to colors of the Tanzanian flag — fitting since these paper chains are made from shredded transcripts of interviews with the Tanzanian side of my family. So now I’m focusing my efforts on blues, greens, yellows. Onward!
2/25/19 – All day, today & tomorrow, I’ll be 1) coating transcript strips with encaustic medium on the hot plate to 2) make links, then 3) gluing them into chains. Podcast playlist is packed, headphones are fully charged. Here we go…♡
3/1/19 – Much gratitude and love to my friend Connie for coming over this morning to help me create an alginate mold of my face.
3/1/19 – Been obsessively scraping and cleaning up this piece with my pottery & dental tools for 4 hours straight. SO satisfying! But it’s time to step away, and return with fresh eyes tomorrow to check out my handiwork in the light of day…
3/4/19 – As I experiment with making an encaustic cast of my face, I’m struck by how much the wax-filled mold looks like an oyster shell…🌊
3/5/19 – Turned out, and cleaned up, the encaustic cast of my face. The verdict is still out re: how I feel about it. It’s getting a bit weird (and eerie), having disembodied faces on my work table. Here’s hoping I can turn them into something beautiful!
I made this short video about the “source material” for these paper chains – shredded transcripts of the family stories I gathered while filming on Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2003.
3/19/19 – Working on the bottom half of my dimensional encaustic piece today — arranging the wax/paper chain in (what I hope will be) an ascending spiral!🤞🏽
3/26/19 – Spending the day weaving twigs to form the interior walls of the Chagga hut that will surround the wax mask…♡ Wood up top, paper below.
3/28/19 – Yesterday was a “2steps forward/1step back” kind of day. This is the challenge and the thrill of #LearningByDoing . Even tho I had to undo a lot of my work, no effort was lost. Each go-around leaves a trace of story that will be seen and felt in the final piece. Every turn is worth the effort.
3/28/2019 – #TBT2004 to filming in my father’s Chagga hut on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Fast forward 15 years, different medium, same story (exploring my cultural inheritance and legacy). Spent today finishing the woodwork that, for me, is reminiscent of the interior of our hut.♡
3/29/19 – The Stories We Inherit (72″x 12″x 11″) – Wax, wood, wire, and paper. Calling this piece done…for now…at least in its current iteration. You know how it goes.
Upcoming Featured Show
ExhibitionEMERGE
: to become known
: to come into being through evolution
: to rise from an obscure or inferior position or condition
Four artists explore what it means to EMERGE through
encaustic, photography, acrylics and ceramics.
COLUMBIA CITY GALLERY
April 4-May 13, 2018
Please join me at the Opening Reception!
Sat. April 7, 2018
5-7pm
Artist In Residence
Activism, Exhibition, Installation, Residency, Story
I have some exciting news to share!! The Center on Contemporary Art Gallery and Shunpike have invited me to participate in their new Storefronts (UN)Contained Residency, designed to support socially engaged artists from a variety of disciplines for whom art and activism are inextricably linked. I am so honored to be in the company of such accomplished artists!!
Anastacia-Renee Tolbert is Seattle’s Civic Poet. Her literary and immersive installation “Do you see what you steal?” is a visual and literary response to gentrification, appropriation, and the multilayered and systemic death of the black woman.
Juliana Kang‘s work explores power dynamics in society. Their work “Han San,” which is Korean for “One Mountain”, is a site-specific installation composed of small, colorful fabric pieces and scaffolding in the formation of a large mound.
As this is my first ever site-specific installation, ideas are percolating about how I might best make use of this shipping container. My piece — The Truth Has No Borders –will explore themes of identity, belonging, cultural inheritance and legacy.
. . . . . . . . .
Artists Reception (one day only!)Date: Saturday, Oct 21st 2017
Time: 11:30am-3:30pm
Free Admission
Location: Three shipping containers across from Seattle Center3rd Ave N between Mercer and Roy St.