🄼 Do you have access to your art studio during the shelter-in-place? If not, how has this affected you/your practice?

🄻 I’m not able to access my studio at the Headlands during shelter-in-place so I set up a table for wood carving at home. On one hand, the situation is highly conducive to allocating time for studio work though I have found it difficult to get into a rhythm with the levels of uncertainty surrounding us. 

🄼 Do you have any routines that are helping you during this period of isolation and social distancing? 

🄻 Walking has always been the activity I cherish most–and all the more so now. Prior to shelter-in-place, I rarely treated walking as an essential part of the day unless it was destination-oriented. I took up weeding in our backyard. Victor and I found a salamander under old leaves and felt like strangers entering another creature’s home. While walking or gardening, it has been refreshing to linger by plants who grow even as they spend their lives in lockdown. 

🄼 We know you love food! A lot of people have been taking this time to slow down and cook. Do you have any recipes or food ideas to share? 

🄻 Good time to roll out Chef’s Table: Pandemic edition. This tahini sauce has been a popular guest amid vegetables: mix tahini, soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar of choice, garlic, maple syrup, maybe ginger and any other umami heavy hitters like miso. Use quantities according to your flavor preferences. I may not be able to cook Chinese dishes like my family but I inherited the Chinese lack of using measuring spoons.

🄼 Do you have any current podcast, tv, or movie recommendations for artists (or anyone)?

🄻  “Monos” for a survivalist film of the Lord of the Flies variety. 

🄼 Do you have any pets at home? If so, can you tell us about them? 

🄻 I, like the record number of other prospective dog adopters/fosters, am glutting up the inboxes of local animal rescues with my eagerness to answer “yes” to this question. 

🄼 Do you have any positive messages that you’d like to share with other artists? 

🄻 I've had scarce motivation to make art during shelter-in-place and I try not to guilt myself for it. As a visual artist, I inherited the mindset: if I'm not working on my sculpture, I'm not working on art. I appreciated writer @mimizhuxiyuan for reminding me "art is community, movement, food and story." These are the art forms that precede any objects I make. I find it encouraging to remember that even when you feel like you're in a studio standstill, this pause can make room for the other avenues that help you and those around you grow. Thank you to artists for showing us what's essential

🄼 Do you have anything coming up that you’d like to share or promote?

🄻 On the indefinite horizon, I will be participating in “Experiments in the Field” group show at the Berkeley Art Center, curated by Svea Lin Soll ( @sveasecoartscope ), and our Headlands graduate fellows exhibition curated by Yomna Osman ( @yomnao ).