I identify as a bi-cultural Chinese-American. My work often reflects this diverse perspective as I was born in the Chinese city of Hangzhou and then adopted at the age of seven and a half months when my mother brought me to our home in California. I have grown up with a love of both Hangzhou’s West Lake with its pagodas and gardens as well as a deep appreciation for my mother’s Iowa roots and the life we have built together in California. I love green tea as much as I love homemade barbecue and the dumpling shop near our house.

At the California College of the Arts (Class of 2021), I chose to major in illustration because of its broad reach across many art practices and because drawing has been my passion since I could hold a crayon.  As a young child, my favorite thing was picking up a pen and making comics, whether a single page or an entire book. At the age of four, I invented a character called Bob and I have been drawing Bob ever since. Bob is my universal character. They are a simple design, but they find themselves in a vast array of settings and situations that I think many people can appreciate. 

I also work in watercolors, acrylics, ceramics, glass and textiles. I like developing multi-media projects that combine these materials including drawing illustrations on clay slabs. I’ve long been interested in scale and recently have been exploring making miniature sculptures, mostly out of clay. The scale of these pieces is as small as 1:144 ( a dollhouse for a dollhouse) with the challenge being not to lose the detail. Much of my work includes hints of fantasy and humor. I hope it offers viewers the opportunity to re-examine their own perspectives and, for a moment, to escape what is usual or expected.