About

I make abstract, identity-based ceramics to communicate complex emotions. My functional and sculptural works are guided by concept and focused on craft.

As a Filipino-Chinese American woman, and also an artist, designer, and programmer, I switch contexts and behavior to navigate different social, cultural, and economic spaces. My work straddles categories like art/design, functional/decorative and shape/texture to symbolically communicate my ambiguous experiences. I express these concepts abstractly to encourage personal interpretation.

My visual approach is complex in order to balance the consequences of my design career. The design industry values clear and accessible solutions, but this emphasis can create a culture of simplification and complacency. To challenge this, I offer complicated art that gives viewers pause and evokes nuanced emotion.

I produce functional vessels because they can simultaneously exist as art objects and as daily essential tools. Ceramic vessels have been made, used, and preserved for thousands of years and are integral components of humanity’s historical record. By creating functional work, I am connecting my audience to that extensive history within their own lives today.

In contrast, my sculptural work is an acknowledgement of the value of pure visual aesthetics. They are expressions of my design identity within the context of art. Each piece is an exploration of form intended to be as dynamic as possible in silhouette and gesture from all viewing angles.

I convey my ideas through ceramics because I can create a wide variety of forms, textures, and colors. The medium provides a balance of control and chaos that I value as a dialogue. I also choose to finesse formulations and custom mix my own clay, colored slips and glazes to refine my results.

My visual inspiration comes from the man-made and the natural realms; the most emotionally moving being phenomena that exist from both of these components. Abstractly, these categories could be described as planned and unplanned. By working in the medium of ceramics, where outcomes can still be unpredictable despite careful forethought, I include the interplay of these concepts within the creative process.

My influences are varied and include ancient Chinese tripod food vessels and censers, li 鬲 and ding 鼎; Japanese Hagi ware 萩焼 and Iga ware 伊賀焼; and the aesthetics of wabi-sabi 侘寂. I have also been influenced by artists Alicia Penalba, Isamu Noguchi and Ruth Duckworth; designers Eva Zeisel, Rowena Reed-Kostellow, and Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe; and architect Zaha Hadid.

I make abstract ceramics that express my lived experience, explore the unconventional and encourage thoughtfulness and consideration.