I am a visual artist born and raised in North Carolina. My formal education includes a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Studies from Cornell University and a Master of Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill. My professional and community interests include food sovereignty and Asian American health. I am interested in an interdisciplinary career that incorporates art and activism into public health and Asian American justice. I create art for Asian Americans to examine gender, sexual, and racial identity and relationships through their performances and actions.

My work is informed by my identity as an asexual and genderqueer Chinese American, my background in nutrition and public health, and, through conversations with other Asian Americans, how performance shapes individual and cultural identity. I use color to express and challenge socially accepted representations of race, class, and gender. I work primarily in oil paint, but also use graphic design, photography, and public art to depict realistic portraits that document my journey of accepting myself and others outside of cisgender, heteronormative, and traditional Chinese and American social ideals.

My current work focuses on how Asian American identity intersects with public health, food, and artistic expression, specifically on intergenerational relationships and Chinese American history. In both art, academia, and American food systems, Asians are not necessarily underrepresented in the workforce, but our community’s needs, struggles, and knowledge are aggregated, disregarded, and appropriated. Our bodies and minds are used but not seen or understood. That disconnection between representation of, and investment in, these communities make many Asian Americans complacent in their own expression and positions in society.

My art is a way that I create space for Asian American faces, identities, and experiences to be seen, understood, and reflected within and outside of our own communities.