October 8 - November 12, 2024

WILD STUDIO

A studio artmaking space dedicated to making tactile experiences that evoke a connection to one’s inner playfulness and sense of joy. Inspired by the Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak exhibition.

A Denver Art Museum program

I was incredibly honored to be the first Demonstrating Artist of The Wild Studio. As a Demonstrating Artist, I was able to exhibit my work in The Wild Studio and engage with museum goers on the Studio Saturdays during my stint at the studio. The studio was an opportunity to feel into my roots as an artist, those memories of pouring over gorgeously illustrated books as a child. Indeed, I would consider the illustrators of those books as my first drawing teachers. Trina Schart Hyman, Gyo Fujikawa, Peter Sis, Chris Van Allsburg, Kinuko Y. Craft, Barbara Berger all enchanted me. The collection of artworks and interactive activity I presented in the studio all centered the intersection of childhood memory and imagination, one of the themes I most connect with in Sendak’s work.

ENGAGEMENT

Studio Saturdays at the Denver Art Museum are an opportunity for museum goers to get a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process and connect with local artists. My Studio Saturdays were a celebration of my inner world, which is heavily influenced by the literature and media I engaged with as a child. I created two collage boards of all the many inspirations that live in my mind - a lattice work of family history, Reading Rainbow, Buddhist artwork, 90s witches, Japanese folklore, Fantasia, Shinto traditions, 80s dark fantasy, Chicano muralism, Caldecott and Newberry medalists, etc.

Museum goers were welcome to ask about the boards or contribute their own dreams, memories, and inspirations to the cauldron. The cauldron was flanked by two daruma to aid in creative illumination and sunflowers to acknowledge one of my first inspirations, Vincent Van Gogh (which was largely prompted by Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt and The Yellow House: Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin Side by Side, written by Susan Goldman Rubin and illustrated by Joseph A. Smith).

In exchange for their offerings, museum goers were gifted a precious token. They had the option of a gold paper crane (symbolic of wishes and longevity in Japanese culture), a key (in reference to my childhood favorite book, The Three Golden Keys by Peter Sis) or a pearl. Pearls are symbols of wisdom in many cultures, so if a pearl

was chosen, the participant also received a reading from a card pull from The Faeries' Oracle illustrated by Brian Froud with text by Jessica Macbeth. The three gifts were represented by watercolor and ink illustrations of each item.

The key and pearl illustration are both available in the SHOP as metallic vinyl stickers

key sticker

pearl sticker

Museum goers were also able to engage with me by learning about the technical technique behind my works through reviewing my “failed” attempts at Kaminari no Mai and Oracle. I typically do not need to restart a piece after beginning, but these two works were especially difficult and so each had two attempts before I was satisfied with the final. The attempts offer insight into how I learned, my preferences and my tangible process.