work in progress

July 2022 - Update

  • City Centre Opening Weekend - Recap

  • Grant Project Update - Becoming Pixel (Portrait 3/5)

  • Glitch Streak (Work in Progress)

  • Vancouver Cityscape (Work in Progress)

City Centre Opening Weekend - Recap

Studio selfie from day 1 of the open studios at City Centre.

A little corner of the studio, showcasing framed works.

Congrats to Harvey + Miu who were the lucky winners of my weekend giveaway of an original framed artwork: Glitch Series 02 - Crop_2.jpg.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out to the City Centre Open Studios last weekend! It was a whirlwind to see so many people out in public, enjoying the beautiful weather, and engaging with the art community in such a positive way. There was pretty much steady traffic passing through my studio all weekend long and I’m so happy that I was able to share both finished works, as well as works in progress with so many new people!

I spent several days prior to the event prepping the studio by hanging more works and rearranging some of the furniture to help showcase as much as I could. I made some sales and by far the best sellers of the weekend were my pins. The 1.5" Glitch pin was the most popular and lots of people were surprised that I had square pins! In case anyone is wondering, I get all my pins made locally at Six Cent Press, right here in Vancouver.

This week I updated my website shop, so if there's anything from the weekend that you missed or changed your mind about you can find it there! Feel free to reach out and arrange a private studio visit if you want to see works in person again or for the first time. If you are local I have the option to pick up from the studio so that you don't need to pay for shipping!

Grant Project Update - Becoming Pixel (Portrait 3/5)

Becoming a Pixel - Portrait 3/5, 2022, embroidery floss, Aida cloth⁠, 7 x 7 inches, 31.25 hours of labour

Last month I finished the third portrait from the Becoming a Pixel series. It’s the least detailed portrait of the three and at this point it’s becoming much harder to identify the image as a self-portrait. The first portrait from the series started with five shades of grey and this portrait is simplified down to only three colours of embroidery thread. The next portrait will be two colours and the final portrait will only be one. I can’t wait to share more progress as this series continues to unravel!

 
 

Glitch Streak (Work in Progress)

Glitch Streak (WIP), 2022, embroidery, Aida cloth

During the open studio event last weekend I was live stitching on this beauty! I felt a little bit like a broken record letting people know that “I’m just over half-way done this piece and I’m about 100 hours in”. My favourite part was seeing people react to how much time I’d spent working on this piece and them realizing that I’m not even done yet!

Glitch Streak (WIP detail), 2022, embroidery, Aida cloth

Vancouver Cityscape (Work in Progress)

I’ve been low key working on some cross-stitched “building” strips that will be added to the Vancouver Cityscape, mixed textile piece that I’ve also been slowly working on in the background (amongst my other higher priority projects). Here are some photos of the process, I hope to be done these in the next week or so!

July 2021 - Update

 
 
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Work in Progress - Funded Art Book Project

After three months of hard core cross-stitching and laborious unstitching, I’ve completed the final cross-stitch piece for my art book project funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. July will be spent reviewing all of the stories submitted through my open call and carefully curating/selecting which ones to include in the book. I will also begin the design and layout of the book using InDesign. It’s really rewarding to see months of work come together and I can’t wait to show off the book when it’s all done!

 
 

Recording: Feminist Craft of Care in Times of Crisis

Back in May, I was one of three artist’s that presented and participated in a panel discussion as part of the public programming for Cinevolution’s Digital Carnival Z. Now there’s a recording of the full event available to view on youtube!

Moderated by Minah Lee, Associate Curator.

How have the labours of women artists been affected by the challenges of the ongoing pandemic? By centering feminist understandings of time and intergenerational connections, can we resist normalized and privileged cruelties practiced by capitalist patriarchy in these unprecedented times?

This panel invites you to the works of Lena Chen, Mallory Donen, and Sarah Shamash, three women artists who are crafting "care culture" in their communities through their art practice and subverting the expected outcomes of feminized labours. Lena Chen is a Chinese American writer and artist creating performances and socially engaged art in live and virtual contexts. Mallory Donen is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Vancouver, exploring processes rooted in traditional craft passed down by generations of women in her family. Sarah Shamash’s projects often underline geopolitics, feminist thought, and historical difference as a marker for understanding the world and worldings in media histories. Threading together realities of gender, labour, and surveillance, the artists' dialogue will expose gendered bodies in resistance, woven into the textile and tactility of the digital world and beyond.

This artist panel is part of the public program series curated by Minah Lee for Cinevolution's Digital Carnival Z, featuring UNION by Featured Artists Nancy Lee 李南屏 and Kiran Bhumber ਕਿਰਨਦੀਪ ਕੌਰ ਭੰਬਰ.

Discover the rest of the events in the series at www.DigitalCarnival.ca.

Society Reboot: A Guide for Humans

I’m excited to share a new video work that I created as a response to the pandemic. The work is intended as comic relief from the anxieties that someone might be experiencing now that state of emergency restrictions are being lifted. How do we start functioning as social human beings again, after such an extended period of isolation? What is normal?

Society Reboot: A Guide for Humans is an instructional video created for humans starting over in a social setting. Have you been quarantined during a pandemic? Do you need a guide for social interactions that use to be second nature? Then, this is the video for you! Or maybe existing in society has always been awkward for you? If so, this guide will introduce you to the social basics and help you learn how to be more “normal”.

This project provides a serious reflection of society's ever-changing definition of “normal”. Humour, irony, and sheer ridiculousness are used as tools to confront discomforts and fears, as individuals are re-introduced to societal interactions.

May 2021 - Update

Feminist Craft of Care for Times of Crisis: a presentation panel

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On May 13th @6:30pm-8:00pm PST, I will be presenting at an artist panel “Feminist Craft of Care for Times of Crisis”, alongside Lena Chen & Sarah Shamash. The panel is part of Digital Carnival Z an annual festival run by Cinevolution Media Arts. I’m very excited to be part of such a well run event and to be presenting with such amazing and talented artists. Register online through Eventbrite to attend the event for free.

I will present works from the past several years which investigate notions of labour, productivity, and the value of art in relation to craft and women’s work. Instead of becoming reliant on computers and other advanced technologies that are accelerating the speeds of production and consumption alike, I choose to look back to centuries-old practices that have been passed down through generations of women. I explore the parallel between repetitive processes and computer programming by taking on the role of a machine.

By embracing time-consuming processes such as hand-stitching, I emphasize the importance and value of women’s labour. As a female artist, my labour is feminized and inherently connected to women’s domestic work. I challenge expectations of traditional craft by introducing conceptual layers and experimentation with new media. Throughout my artist talk, I will bring awareness to the value of feminine art forms and the connection between craft and fine art.

A WAY Online Art Gallery

GlitchSeries04 - Crop_1_crop.jpg, Archival inkjet print and embroidery, 11 x 14 inches, 2019

GlitchSeries04 - Crop_1_crop.jpg, Archival inkjet print and embroidery, 11 x 14 inches, 2019

Glitch Series 04 is available for sale at A WAY Online Art Gallery for the next couple months, check out their website for my work and art by some other amazing artists!

Open Call - Submit your Story

Women’s stories surrounding pain will be chosen to be part of a conceptual art book project, mirrored with images of delicate handkerchiefs and embroidery.

Submit your anonymous stories and experiences of when you felt the need to hide either your emotional/physical pain in order to avoid pity or shame for being too sensitive.

Let us contradict the stereotype of women as pure and fragile by demonstrating the perseverance, dedication, and strength of women. 

Work in Progress - Funded Art book Project

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The past month has been jammed packed with many hours of cross-stitching, as I begun working on my project funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. First, I received my new embroidery stand and hoops in the mail. Second I fully prepped a piece of Aida cloth by securing the edge with stitches, to prevent fraying. I even marked the vertical and horizontal middles with stitches, which is something I rarely do!

For this project, I am creating an art book consisting of scans of my Ama’s original handkerchiefs and corresponding cross-stitched replications of each pattern.

I have chosen and scanned nine handkerchiefs, which I am converting into cross-stitch patterns. Using the patterns, I am cross-stitching nine embroidered pieces (approx. 6x6 inches each), which are scanned once completed.

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After each cross-stitch piece is completed, I will mirror the cyclical structure of a woman’s existence and allude to the concept of invisibility, by recycling the same piece of Aida cloth and the same strands of embroidery thread for each new pattern. I will unravel each completed cross-stitch replication and re-stitch the next handkerchief by reusing the same material.

The art book will consist of pages with a scan of a handkerchief on the left and a scan of the corresponding cross-stitched piece on the right. It will also include stories selected from an anonymous open call (Submit your story to be a part of the project). The stories will be examples from women who have had to hide or pretend that they were not in pain in order to avoid pity or shame for being too sensitive.

Throughout April, I completed three of the nine cross-stitch pieces. Each piece took an average of 25 hours to cross-stitch and 14 hours to unstitch. It’s weird to think that the only evidence of these works will be the final scans/images that will be included in the art book. Although it may seem unusual, it adds to the conceptual aspects of the work, by emphasizing the invisibility of the labour. This connects to the idea of women’s labour and pain as invisible.

I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

 
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May 2020 - Update

I’ve been quarantined at home for 6 weeks now, due to Covid-19, but I’m still working remotely full-time. Over the past month, I’ve been working on another Glitch Series, Glitch Series 05. When I initially started Glitch Series 01 back in 2017, I had always thought that I would finish the series by stitching them together in quilt-like fashion. However, somewhere along the way, my thought process changed. Thus, I ended up presenting the work as a diptych, showing each digital and cross-stitched image in a double-window matted frame.

Glitch Series 01 - Crop_5.jpg, 16”x20”, archival inkjet print, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 2017

In September, at the Vermont Studio Centre, I started a new body of work titled the Translation Series. Since then, I’ve been contemplating the final presentation of this work and I’m still unsure of how it will look in the end. I recently remembered the cross-stitch quilt idea I had for the Glitch Series and thought this could be the direction to take for this series.

Vermont Studio Center, September 2019

Therefore, I decided I would test this quilt idea with the latest Glitch Series 05, as a sort of maquette. I’m hoping that once I complete this “quilt”, I’ll see whether it is successful or not as a means of presentation for my cross-stitched work. This weekend I finished cross-stitching the 9th piece for Glitch Series 05. The next step will be figuring out how to stitch the grid together. I’m anticipating it will be a process of trial and error, but I’m excited to push myself to try something outside of my comfort zone.

(Work in progress) Glitch Series 05 , 2 1/8” x 2 1/8” (each), embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 2020

Lastly, here’s another progress shot of Stitching Loose Ends. This is an ongoing piece where I’m cross-stitching loose threads that are leftover from other projects. I’m always looking for ways to reduce waste in my art practice, as well as everyday life.

Stitching Loose Ends (progress shot), 2018-2020, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 16 inches wide x 2 5/8 inches thick

October 2019 - Update

The month of October was spent adjusting back to real life with a full-time day job. I found I still had lots of motivation left over from the residency and I was able to get a solid amount of work done. I completed another cross-stitch in the Translation Series, a painting from the Paint by Numbers Series, added a couple rows to Stitching Loose Ends and submitted to several galleries for shows in the new year, as well as an artist residency in France.

Pattern D (front view), 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 9.5 x 9.5 inches

Pattern D (front view), 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 9.5 x 9.5 inches

Pattern D (back view), 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 9.5 x 9.5 inches

Pattern D (back view), 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 9.5 x 9.5 inches

Stitching Loose Ends, work in progress (2018-2019), embroidery floss, Aida cloth

Stitching Loose Ends, work in progress (2018-2019), embroidery floss, Aida cloth

I also started to work on an old photography project I started back in 2017 while I was finishing up my MFA in Winnipeg. The idea behind the project was to shoot roll of film with a list of pre-established camera-settings. Therefore, each frame had an assigned f-stop and shutter speed. This further expands my approach to creating art as a machine through a new medium, using analog photography. The photos from the project were all printed in the darkroom at U of M, but now I’m planning to assemble them into a handmade book.

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Lately my weekend routine consists of running errands on Saturdays, doing household chores on Sundays, cross-stitching, Netflixing, and taking in the beautiful sun rays in my apartment.

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Translation #4 - Cross-Stitch (detail), 2019, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 6 x 6 inches

Translation #4 - Cross-Stitch (detail), 2019, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 6 x 6 inches

Translation #4- Paint By Numbers, 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 4 x 4 inches and Translation #4 - Cross-Stitch, 2019, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 6 x 6 inches

Translation #4- Paint By Numbers, 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 4 x 4 inches and Translation #4 - Cross-Stitch, 2019, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 6 x 6 inches

One Semester Ends and Another Begins

Sorry for the delayed blog post, I know that I am behind by a couple of months. Life has been crazy lately and with the chaos of my school having a strike, it made for an interesting last semester. A couple of weeks ago I wrapped up my Fall semester with two critiques. 

My first critique was for my final Installation project for my elective course. I printed a series of fabric banners, which I then spent two full days hanging/installing with the help of my friend Katherine. I wanted to create an interactive installation that would encourage the viewer to navigate the space, interact, and investigate the all encompassing patterns. 

Next I had my main studio critique, which I forgot to document with my DSLR!!! However, I do still have some images I took with my phone of what I've been working on. I've been trying to create a range of works in which I use different types of machines and tools. I want to draw out the similarities between the ways that computers and artists make art.  

The first project is a woven blanket. I created a complex multilayered pattern in Photoshop and then sent the Jpeg file to a company called PhotoWeavers in North Carolina. The blanket is a jacquard woven throw blanket 53"x70". I am interested in how the results of the final image was almost entirely out of my control. I provided the source information and then the computer/machine generated this magnificently woven image.  

Next, I've been working on a cross-stitching project which I showed as a work in progress for the critique. I began by creating two small squares (19x19 squares), which were very precise, controlled, and spontaneously produced without following a pre-determined pattern. I scanned these two small squares and created digital images in Photoshop to help make a new pattern. I used a website called StitchFiddle to input these digital images, which generated them into cross-stitch patterns.

These new cross-stitch patterns are my guide for two new large squares (100x100 squares). I've been documenting the process by taking a photo after each day of work. I've also been timing each of my work sessions, I'm curious to see how long it will all take me. I've estimated that it will take approximately 125 hours and about 5 weeks. The images below show the development of the first large square over the span of about 2 weeks. If I'm lucky I think I might even finish it in a month! 

As I work on these cross-stitch works I feel like a computer. However, I make mistakes, which I guess is what makes me human. 

Lastly, are some more works in progress and some work I've already posted in a previous blog. These are my instructions works, in which I create a list of instructions before I begin creating a digital artwork in Photoshop. I must follow the instructions, however each instruction is often open to interpretation and can have a range of results. I've also been working on making a book that will demonstrate the range of imagery and possibilities that exist within these instruction works. 

This month I am going to be writing and further developing my thesis paper. At the same time I have several projects on the go including cross-stitching, a book project, as well as a yarn project! Stay tuned for more updates next month :).