{"id":5785,"date":"2026-09-17T16:44:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T23:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/?p=5785"},"modified":"2026-09-17T16:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T23:44:59","slug":"los-angeles-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/17\/los-angeles-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles pt 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I arrived in LA a few days before the opening reception so I could paint on the walls of the gallery.
In my mind, I envisioned something that would feel like the Caves of Lascaux or the Cueva de las Manos, and so I decided to use the designs I created for my Post-It show pieces<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe<\/em>,” is a quote from John Muir which has been influencing me and my life ever since I read it in high school. And I am now seeing how it has also influenced my art and creative practice.

With my roots in printmaking, I have always considered the background surface as an integral part of a piece or design.
The paper, canvas, fabric, or wood is not merely just a surface to be used for the sake of a piece. Instead, it’s colour, texture\u2014it’s very self\u2014is incorporated into the piece. It has more value and meaning this way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interacting and existing within a three-dimensional space has been something I’ve been thinking about as I work more and more with clay and sculptures. And I think with the gallery and my show, I did not want the walls and building itself to simply exist as the container for my work to reside within. I wanted it to play a role and add to the story that I was telling. I wanted the space itself to have value and meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I actually had a grand idea to turn the entire gallery into something that felt like a museum exhibit full of old work, sketchbooks, and artifacts from my personal life alongside my pieces. But as I worked on the show throughout the year, the creative spirit within me began editing and refining what this show would look\u2014and feel like\u2014in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even during this process, I was editing and refining.
It’s difficult to see the texture in photos, but I originally intended on filling these completely in solid black.
But I just loved how the texture of the wall itself was showing through as I painted, so I decided to leave some of that texture visible because it added to the whole “cave art” vibe I was aiming for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When I started painting these, I honestly started to doubt my idea and felt like I was making a mistake painting all of these. But I decided to just go with it and trust the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the end, I edited out the majority of the details I originally planned on painting within each animal.
I felt that more line-work would detract from the texture of the wall. Simple felt more impactful and less distracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also painted the front because it felt so empty without something<\/em> there.
And what better way to entice folks to the gallery walking down the street than to see a group of mysterious animals running towards a big red door?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are some pictures of me painting that GR took!
This is honestly how I look when I’m working at home\u2014hair pinned up in some sort of bun shape, simple clothes, and a messy apron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Me and Jenn, my Soul Sister in Clay!
Jenn makes these wonderful, Japanese folklore inspired sculptures that you can find here:
https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jlima_studio<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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More painting\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cassia Lupo (she helps organise and curates many of hte GR shows!), Me, Eric (gallery owner), and Nancy!!
Nancy (https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nancywyuen\/?hl=en)<\/a> is one of the go-to Asian voices when it comes to racism towards the Asian\/Asian-American community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I’ve come to realise as I find myself folding more and more into the Giant Robot family is how it feels like a community that nourishes and speaks to the Asian side of myself.
Chatting with Nancy while she was visiting the gallery gave me the chance to hear about a lot of the sociological, racial issues with Hollywood and media that the Asian\/Asian-American community are dealing with that the Black community also faces, but with the nuance that comes with it being a different racial community.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I arrived in LA a few days before the opening reception so I could paint on the walls of the gallery.In my mind, I envisioned something that would feel like the Caves of Lascaux or the Cueva de las Manos, and so I decided to use the designs I created for my Post-It show pieces. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,17,27],"tags":[16,28],"class_list":["post-5785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures","category-art","category-brain-dump-2","tag-art","tag-brain-dump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5787,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions\/5787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lioninthetrees.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}