Born in 1969, the same year America first landed a man on the moon, I’ve always been mesmerized with space and the universe and its striking similarities to our Earth’s own oceans, and even our own bodies at microscopic levels. I am deeply interested in the parallels between the macro and micro of our awareness. My work, whether it be prints, sculptures, or watercolors, often reflects this enthrallment.
At age seventeen, I began working as an artist for Tower Records. Over the next four years, I traveled across the country, creating displays and murals and helping to establish what became Tower Records signature look of the nineties. Given free rein to explore different mediums, I developed my skills in multiple medias and processes. This growing confidence in my abilities, combined with the first independence of a young adult, allowed me to discover and, more importantly, be proud of my own distinctive voice.
This was a hard-won achievement because aside from a brief period in Taiwan, I did most of my growing up in a predominantly white and exceedingly small farm town in Illinois. There I grappled with self-imposed projections of discrimination and inequities. As a result, I spent much of my adolescence desperately trying to fit in. My mother’s Asian ancestry and exotic beliefs, mixed with my father’s military authority and Catholic upbringing made this impossible. Although I rebelled against the confusion and constraints of my parents, I eventually benefited from my father’s strict discipline, juxtaposed with my mother’s Taiwanese mysticism. From my father, I learned to enjoy following the rules and from my mother, I learned to enjoy breaking them.
I was drawn to printmaking because it appealed to this same duality—allowing for both precision and spontaneity. My methodical side benefits from printmaking’s many rules, while my impulsive side enjoys printmaking’s endless possibilities in techniques and materials. I especially enjoy linoleum-cuts and collagraphy, but am also attracted to the many other processes, including serigraphy, solar printing, and viscosity prints.
As a student of Eastern philosophy, I am currently exploring the similarites between tenets of Eastern mysticism such as Taoism's Tao, the Buddhist Dharmakaya, and the Hinduist Brahman with concepts of physics such as the theory of everything and string theory. All of these notions seem to point to a fundamental idea that there is an underlying reality which connects not only us to each other, but to all matter and events that we perceive. These abstract concepts of quantum physics, while completely beyond my mental capacities, never fail to inspire my imagination and my work.
At age seventeen, I began working as an artist for Tower Records. Over the next four years, I traveled across the country, creating displays and murals and helping to establish what became Tower Records signature look of the nineties. Given free rein to explore different mediums, I developed my skills in multiple medias and processes. This growing confidence in my abilities, combined with the first independence of a young adult, allowed me to discover and, more importantly, be proud of my own distinctive voice.
This was a hard-won achievement because aside from a brief period in Taiwan, I did most of my growing up in a predominantly white and exceedingly small farm town in Illinois. There I grappled with self-imposed projections of discrimination and inequities. As a result, I spent much of my adolescence desperately trying to fit in. My mother’s Asian ancestry and exotic beliefs, mixed with my father’s military authority and Catholic upbringing made this impossible. Although I rebelled against the confusion and constraints of my parents, I eventually benefited from my father’s strict discipline, juxtaposed with my mother’s Taiwanese mysticism. From my father, I learned to enjoy following the rules and from my mother, I learned to enjoy breaking them.
I was drawn to printmaking because it appealed to this same duality—allowing for both precision and spontaneity. My methodical side benefits from printmaking’s many rules, while my impulsive side enjoys printmaking’s endless possibilities in techniques and materials. I especially enjoy linoleum-cuts and collagraphy, but am also attracted to the many other processes, including serigraphy, solar printing, and viscosity prints.
As a student of Eastern philosophy, I am currently exploring the similarites between tenets of Eastern mysticism such as Taoism's Tao, the Buddhist Dharmakaya, and the Hinduist Brahman with concepts of physics such as the theory of everything and string theory. All of these notions seem to point to a fundamental idea that there is an underlying reality which connects not only us to each other, but to all matter and events that we perceive. These abstract concepts of quantum physics, while completely beyond my mental capacities, never fail to inspire my imagination and my work.
