About

Hello.

I am not a professional artist.

I am an ethnic Chinese born in Indonesia, and have lived in US since the early 80s. I live and work in the San Francisco Bay area, California.

I began learning about art at a young age by watching Pak Tino on TV  draw. He is the Bob Ross of Indonesia in the 70’s and 80’s. One of my sisters and I used to also play with Legos and Snoopies, which I credit as the roots to my obsession  passion for dioramas. While my sister became a civil engineer, I became a non-professional artist.

I put aside my artistic interests in order to focus on responsible immigrant goals, such as becoming the 6th grade Spelling Bee Champion at Commonwealth Elementary School, receiving a B.S. in Plant Biology and a minor in Entomology from UC Davis, and gaining employment and a retirement plan at USDA, working with plants and insects since 2004. I have to work for 16 15 14 13 12 more years before I can retire.

In 2006, I began taking evening art classes at Berkeley City College. While visiting Open Studios in 2009, I met Cynthia Tom and learned about the Asian American Women Artist Association and subsequently, A Place of Her Own.  This connection has propelled multiple opportunities to exhibit my art, which is based on my life, the people around me, and my family stories because that’s what I know best, and what I’m compelled to make. I have come to realize recently that I tell my family stories because it’s an important way to show them that their stories matter, that they matter, and who else can better tell our stories than us. I hope that you, as my audience, sees that just as my family, who are working class folks have stories worthy to tell, so are the stories of my audience and their families worthy of telling and remembering.

Focusing on my family history has been invaluable to seeing them as more than authority figures from whom I’ve desperately tried to win approval and avoid rejection. This process has brought light, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and even pride to who I am today. The process has also humanized my family and ancestors as real people with hopes, dreams, frustrations, successes, failures, and resilience and people who are/were trying to do the best they can given their circumstances, and in their historical context. I feel more connected to them through this process. To my surprise, it has also allowed people who’ve seen my work to also feel connected to me. The more personal stories I share, the more universal my stories become. Vulnerability is a gift and a strength. 

That said, since 2020, I have been gravitating towards the present and the community in which I live. While I continue to live with the memories, the ghosts, and the effects of my ancestors’ decisions, I also want to live in the present, and address the circumstances of the living and my community.

Unlike normal people, I have no interest in selling or making any profit from my artwork, especially those that are based on my family history. My family stories are not for sale. Aside from that, since I already have a decent paying job, I want one thing in my life untethered from capitalism. This realization came after having sold some works, so I stopped selling. That said, I also recognize that normalizing paying artists is important, so now if ever I am offered monetary compensation, I accept it, but I usually donate it back to the organization that offers artist compensation, or to another organization. It’s a win-win situation.

I am lucky, privileged, and so honored to be able to exhibit my work in galleries and community spaces throughout San Francisco Bay area.

Aside from visual art, I am also exploring butoh with some butohBuddies, an informal group of friends who gravitates towards shedding of the light and offering compassion to the darkness, but also not letting ourselves get sucked into it. It is a different kind of artmaking that I find accepting, fulfilling, strange, familiar, and real.

When not making art or working at my day job, I also help out with bookkeeping for A Place of Her Own, and proudly serve as a member of the scholarship committee of Moving Forward 510, and recently became a new volunteer with Social Justice Sewing Academy. I loved caring for senior cats, Latte before she passed away, and another senior baby kitty, Pebbles, before she also recently passed away. I have recently allowed myself to splurge to growing ferns among other tropical plants in and out of terrariums. My house is becoming a tropical jungle now and I’m not sorry.

I am constantly learning, however slow, broadening my imperfect horizons, and making lots of mistakes along the way. Thank you for visiting.

-irene