STATEMENT OF WORK

I work primarily as a painter. Utilizing multi-point perspectives, highly saturated pigments in thick and thin layers, I create paintings that describe the deeply fractured landscape we find ourselves in today. My painting process begins with abstract color and gesture that I merge with imagery from my subconscious thoughts and dreams. Across my paintings, man-made dwellings, monuments, apartment blocks, and architecture meet minutely detailed landscapes comprising trees, rocks, sky, sea, flowers, and other little observations in the natural environment. Often, my paintings contain flashbacks from living and growing up in Southeast Asia interspersed with the landscape I now find myself in. Places from my childhood merge with grotesque and gothic forms giving rise to mythic creatures and landscapes with multi-point perspectives and otherworldly color. The creatures embedded within the landscape evoke mythic themes of chaos, apocalypse, and rebirth, referencing Eastern and Western tales.

At times, I gravitate towards slower and more contemplative processes like drawing or monotypes as a way of getting to know the landscapes and places I find myself immersed in. The ghostly forms that emerge conjure up multiple narratives – cities lost to time, the ruminative nature of a wanderer searching for solace, or the mourning of the loss of something on a collective whole.

I am fond of long bike rides in the city and its surrounding suburbs and towns. Cycling is my means of deeply connecting with the geography and the lay of the land, as well as getting to know local cultures and histories. This forms a strong impetus from which I use to create work.

My collaborative projects open up discussions and involve the communities I work with into being part of a collective eco-mindedness and envisioning a sustainable future in which everyone can thrive. The process of collaborative creation allows me and my collaborators to imagine new ways, and think and reflect deeply on how a future landscape can manifest. My collaborations have celebrated local histories and collective memories while projecting collective hopes and dreams for a better, kinder, caring and more beautiful world.