I am mainly self-taught. I experimented, read books, visited China with Ning Yeh, sought feedback and examined my life. In Chinese spontaneous painting - the essence of the subject is expressed with one or as few strokes as possible. Color variations, wet/dry strokes, etc are all done in one stroke! The honesty, simplicity, efficiency and speed appeals to me - probably because it's a reflection of who I am.
I paint spontaneously, driven by my feelings and subconscious. I love bright colors and contrast - different from traditional Chinese paintings. This is why I call my work "Watercolors on Rice-Paper". I blend traditional Chinese techniques with innovative techniques I have created to convey my point of view.
I had no warning this would happen. I was born in Malaysia, adopted by a single Chinese woman. A Science student at an early age, I didn't get to explore art, music, dance or sports. We immigrated to Australia when I was 17. I walked out of my home after 8 months in Australia - finally had enough of the abuse. With no family or friends in a new country, and briefly homeless, I put myself through college working 4-6 jobs and graduated with a chemistry and computer science degree and in my honors research year in Chemistry, invented 15 compounds. Even then, I didn't feel clever - the complete opposite in fact.
I fell into the computing Industry - for 17+ years I worked crazy hours, travelling all over the world. While at Oracle, I was invited to work in the Desktop development group and relocated to Northern California from Australia in 1991.
8 years at Oracle, 2 great years at Microsoft, 5 painful startups .... the executive management level was chock full of politics but I was fortunate to have enjoyed many successes, made friends and learned from smart people.
I kept my sanity by dancing a lot. I took many career risks as I felt I had prove to myself that I was not stupid and strive for financial freedom before I was 40. I transitioned from R&D to management, marketing and then sales - always taking on the most challenging or new projects, building teams and over-achieving revenue goals.
My last gamble paid off - our startup was acquired after 8 months. My stock options were worth something but I had to remain with the acquiring company to vest fully. The acquiring company tried to shut our team down by doubling our quota in Q3. That failed when we finished the year at 111% of a ridiculous quota, I was then laid off within 2 weeks of a major vesting period. Instead of fighting in the courts, I collected my commissions, went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to learn how to Samba and then back to Cuba (2nd time) to study Cuban dances. 6 months later in Nov 2001, I started painting.
All alone in the world, to survive and succeed, I developed many skills to compete and win ... eventually becoming a type 'A' but with a kind heart. However, this is not who I am and over the years, my soul was dying a slow death. The creative process of painting has cracked open my dissociation and it's very healing. I bounced between Northern California and New York for several years, studying with an exceptional art coach - Mr. Jin in New York who had a tremendous impact on my work.
I relocated to Southern California in 2003 and have taught brush painting to 300+ adults!! This exploration into creativity has expanded beyond my imagination.
My other passions in dance and music has led me to teach Ballroom pre-COVID and I have introduced hundreds of adults to ballroom dancing. I started Ballet in my late 40s and was en pointe at age 52!
For 20+ years, I have been introducing new and complex concepts to many people - from my days in the computing industry introducing innovative new technologies large corporations and thousands of people, and as an artist, introducing creativity through art and dance.
My knowledge and insights about myself, my deep understanding about my past experiences as a survivor of physical, emotional/verbal, sexual abuse and neglect and my own organic healing journey has equipped me to use my hurt to heal the hurt in others. I started a support group for adult survivors of child abuse in 2011- ASCA Santa Clarita (ascasantaclarita.org), advocated for domestic violence survivors and volunteer for The Morris Center for healing from childhood abuse (ascasupport.org) - empowering and advocating for survivors!
