Rockwood 10 Textile Upholstery Design
My Hounded Toiles are inspired by my obsession with the Toile de Jouy patterns of 18th century France. I love how the patterns traditionally depict complex vignettes of daily life, have a recognizable style of fine etchings, and are typically applied to furniture, curtains, and wallpaper. I wanted to take these established traditions and subvert them to question the subjects that inform and define our lives but which, similarly to patterns, tend to be pushed to the periphery of our vision.
Each of the four Hounded Toiles was in direct conversation with the others; one depicted only Golden Retrievers, another only Beagles, another only Min, and the fourth was a combination of all three. They share the same level detail and style of strokes; I welcome the viewer to look closely in order to recognize the differences, to be curious and examine carefully, otherwise sameness is all you will see.
Folded Facade reflects my explorations of the divide between the public and the private in our lives. Using linen designed with patterns that fold to specific, exact styles, I make obvious the facade. These linen pieces transform into napkins when placed atop my illustrated tablecloth, further bringing the domestic sphere into the conversation. Napkins are intended for etiquette, for a presentation of civility, cleanliness, and routine. I borrow their likeness to comment upon the formality of inviting guests into one’s home, bringing the public into the private and yet attempting to maintain a veneer of privacy.
My own family is at its most curated when guests are in our home. We all silently present a facade, but cracks are still visible, to those who look closely. In this work I embed symbols and clues to the deeper currents, offering opportunities to catch a glimpse of the “real.”
I am curious about how we internalize societal expectations of appropriate behavior and presentation. Can we share uncomfortable secrets and recognize the diversity of our struggles as moments for kinship?
Through embracing the allure of a designed surface, I challenge expectations in favor of experiences. The offers of vulnerability embedded in my work invite connection. The reveal is in the details, encouraging careful and curious viewing. My surfaces express dense yet organized information and play with concealment through language and illustration. I encourage you to look closer and seek what lies below the surface.
We curate our identities across every aspect of our lives, on social media platforms, in our day-to-day conversations, and now, on our Hydro Flasks. Not only do Hydro Flasks exist as signifiers of social capital and aspirational lifestyles, they have become platforms to further refine and project our identity to others. In this project, I sought to create a larger-than-life Hydro Flask and to curate it with stickers that initially read like “typical” Hydro Flask stickers. This moment of perspective shift between expectation to experience is powerful. This project utilized my diverse multimedia skills, love of a good challenge and appreciation for an expansive design process.
In its first installation, this piece was accompanied by three shelves, each of which offered regular sized sticker replicas of the ones on the sculpture for viewers to take as desired.
I worked as a contributing artist with PSU professors, David Banis and Hunter Shobe, for their book 'Upper Left Cities: A Cultural Atlas of San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.' I illustrated components for several maps and created three analog maps to express data about shifting technologies in each city. In creating each map, I worked in coordination with the professors to communicate the data effectively and in a visually compelling manner.
Microaggressions create momentary rips in daily routines, reminding one of an Otherness made visible through behavior or appearance, an Otherness which challenges one’s belonging to the given context. This repeating demand, “Why are all you Asian girls dyeing your hair blond?,” provoked a pattern illustration and poetic narrative exploring some of the nuances of my racial identity and its impact on my understanding of family heritage. What does it mean that my grandfather fled Communism to establish a life in New Mexico, only years later to return and bury his brother at their ancestral plot? How do I begin to understand the weight of my cultural heritage when I barely speak enough Chinese to play Mahjong? Through this work, I find moments of tautness and tangles as I explore the symbols and stories through which I build intimacy with my family history.
I moved to Portland in the Fall of 2018, familiar with the rains of the Pacific Northwest but new to the busy urban landscape. I sought out horse chestnut trees, trees that for me were reminiscent of the autumns of my childhood which often found my family and I hunting for horse chestnuts in Seattle parks. In seeking out these trees, I stumbled upon a ‘Nuisance Tree List.’ Provided by the official city of Portland website, this list includes plants which are prohibited from being planted within specific zones of the city, primarily as an effort to manage invasive species. This realization combined with the stray cats I’d encountered in my first few months in Portland and my growing awareness of Portland’s housing crises. In turn, these connections led me to create illustrations exploring my interest in mind-mapping as a way to learn a place and to find alternative ways to experience the physical navigation of a place.
I chose to work with the traditional toile style, because its typically pastoral illustrations offered an opportunity to subvert expectations of content. What would it look like to represent some of the ignored, overlooked aspects of Portland by using a medium known for its blandly pleasant representations of place? What does it mean to create such a pattern and then make wallpaper from it, to curate a space with wallpaper composed of images which in their nature are often dismissed?
Inspired by the conflicting beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the beautiful bodies of water that humankind impacts with pollution and carelessness, this pattern explores a narrative of overwhelming and consistent disregard for the state of our water and the repercussions of our actions on ourselves, other species, and the entirety of our ecosystem.
Set of 15 holiday cards. Printed using a digitally-illustrated, lasercut woodblock puzzle on a Vanderbilt press and hand-sewn onto Stonehenge paper.
Series of copper-plate etchings, each etching a progression of the previous one. Subject and title inspired by ‘Where the Red Fern Grows,’ and reflecting on remembrance of beloved bonds.
This pattern was hand-printed on a sheer chiffon fabric with a set of carved linocut blocks. Exploring the symbolism of the home and the hand, and the female figure rooted in a sense of comfort and growth, this piece also incorporates questions of labor and value as the final result of the hours spent carving and printing each block during the creation process fade into the larger pattern.
Digital illustrations of beloved pets, a personalized gift.
A collection of five postcards inspired by my sister’s move to Saarbrücken, Germany for the year. Digitally illustrated.
This project arose from the conclusion of my written senior thesis, 'A Long-Term Investment in Empathy and Mental Illness in Mr. Robot', as I wanted to further pursue my interest in the show. I wanted to explore how four of the main characters grapple with the isolating nature of their world. Beyond that, I wanted to imagine ways that I could become more than a passive observer and thus I created two sets of cards to first depict how each character struggles and then to address how each character copes and to suggest hopeful and supportive words of my own. The first set of cards follows a red and gray theme and each of the physical copies has a cut-out word or phrase to reveal the interior of the card (visible in later images). The second set takes a calmer blue and gray tone and suggests a simple yet encouraging message for each character, but also for anyone who might identify with that character.