About Me
My artistic journey began in my teenage years when I became known at school as an entirely self-taught pencil artist who pursued photorealistic portraiture. With a youthful discipline, I gradually developed a refined technical aptitude to begin what was later to become an art career.
After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Applied Mathematics, I moved to Atlanta, GA, to start a career as a health actuary and to pay off my student loans. In 2019, I decided to quit my corporate day job of nearly five years and pursue my passion as a full-time artist entrepreneur!
In the summer of 2021, I moved back to Los Angeles to work from my childhood home. I am in high spirits due to once again feeling grounded after more than a decade of adventuring around the world.
In my free time, I am an avid Lindy Hopper, hiker, and history buff. I often travel across the country for dance exchanges.
About my Art
During college, I spent a year at Marchutz School of Art (Aix-en-Provence, France), where I discovered the rich history of art and philosophies. I am heavily influenced by masters like Hokusai, Rembrandt, Turner, Daumier, and later American Illustration artist, Bernie Fuchs—from whom I obsessively seek guidance on the relationship of light, color, composition, and execution by tirelessly studying their works.
A cursory glance through my portfolio would reveal that I have a history full of experimentation and exploration with various techniques and styles. I am very happy to have spent my early years studying, embracing, without prejudice, the vast sum of knowledge that a history full of masters had to teach me. I would have done myself a disservice had I decided to marry a singular technique/style/subject matter for the entire length of my career.
As such, after years of artistic and locational wandering, my current stage of life has evolved into a concurrent pursuit of two different painting categories which equally entice me:
1. Atmospheric landscapes - Focusing more on atmospheric sentimentality than the play of light and shadow, it is an acknowledgement of the transient nature of my surroundings. I am very drawn by the fleeting quality of everything that is beautiful and everything that is not beautiful. It comes from a melancholy side of me that seeks to achieve harmony from imbalance, stability from turmoil.
2. Abstract rendering of expressive figures - The objective being closer to a dialogue of colors, rather than abstract expressionism, I prefer a more free and intuitive approach to express the movement of human figures, especially ones in elaborate costumes of great cultural significance, ie. dancers, opera performers, athletes...etc. Contrary to many mainstream artists, I'm interested less in what they look like, how pretty the subject matter is, but more on what they are, what they do, and how I can best showcase where they come from in my own way. It comes from a restless side of me that likes adventure, enterprise, and taking risks.
Exhibitions
2021 LA Mexican Consultate 35x35 Bicentennial Exhibition
2021 5th Annual Light Space & Time Art Gallery Exhibition
2020 Art Show International Finalist Award
2020 Las Laguna Gallery Juried Art Exhibition
2020 85th Annual National Juried Art Exhibition of the Cooperstown Art Association
2020 Cerulean Arts' 8th Annual Juried Exhibition
2020 Blue Mountain Gallery Summer 2020 Juried Exhibition
2019 Creative Mill: Roswell Mill Juried Art Exhibition
2018 Creative Mill: Roswell Mill Juried Art Exhibition
2011 Steem Honorable Mention
2011-2012 Marchutz School of Art Exhibitions
2008 Disney Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Award
2008-2009 California State University- Northridge Annual Exhibitions