I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Ottawa, Ontario. My work explores vulnerability, peeking through personal barriers and facing uncertainty. I draw from my own experiences of mental health after stepping away from a career-driven trajectory and dealing with the repercussions of my decision and the factors that led to it. Recently having lost my mother, my current work celebrates my mother’s enthusiasm for sharing and appreciates the differences between mother and daughter. I have also begun to re-examine my strained relationship with my cultural heritage as a first-generation Canadian of Cambodian-Thai descent, evaluating the effects of diaspora and conflicting cultural expectations on personal identity. I also explore whimsical illustrations depicting humans, animals, and plants in a more playful manner.

Using watercolour, oil paint, and various printmaking techniques, the human figure or portrait is depicted obscured, shielded, or vulnerable using body language, composition, and shrouding motifs signifying the walls that we build around ourselves for protection. My work is typically small in scale as intimate windows through those barriers into the worlds held within. The figure itself may be distorted or taken over by invading forces as an internal struggle ensues where one searches for and actively molds a sense of self. The window becomes a beacon of yearning for growth. Ambiguity in the figure or setting is used to allow the work to be seen at different stages of the journey as we may find ourselves unsure of where to go or traveling in circles to find our way out.

Drawing from the visual culture of horror movies, anime, and manga, my work contains elements of surrealism and fantasy to enhance these dream-like worlds contained in my images. Aided by the visual and mental references cultivated through media and books, I write, sketch and daydream. The physicality of setting up to paint, carve, etch, or ink becomes ritual in preparation to create. I embrace the pull to jump into artwork and allow the physical manifestation to guide my decisions. “Mistakes” that come with using traditional mediums become a welcome facet of the creative process