Pictured with Centre City Banners I designed for the City of Calgary bridges and Olympic Plaza
Photo by Jared Sych for Avenue Magazine
I am a Chinese German Polish mixed media illustrator and animator currently based in Calgary, Alberta. I graduated with a BFA in New Media from the University of Lethbridge in 2007.
Growing up inspired by skateboarding graphics, music, album covers, and Saturday morning cartoons, my art plays with these nostalgic elements to bring forward peculiar worlds.
Absurding the norm and introducing the weird into an environment, whether in illustration or live action animation, my work brings strange life to image. Creepy, playful, with elements of softness and manic absurdity, illustrations act as a window into a world with no explanation in which the characters inhabit.
Using self-contained narrative, these misfit inhabitants are embracing small moments of discovery and childish curiosity of exploration.
I am a full time working freelance artist and have worked extensively creating artwork within the music industry and the world of publishing. From 2017-2023 I sat as a board member for Quickdraw Animation Society. In 2018 I created the visual identity for that year's Calgary Folk Music Festival. In 2021 I was selected to be the City of Calgary's Centre City Banner Artist, as such my banner designs were installed leading into and around the downtown area.
I have been featured as the cover artist of the Believer Magazine multiple times and in 2021 one of my illustrations for my series Escapes And Trapdoors: Diversions From Life In Poverty created for The Believer was a finalist for an American Society of Magazine Editors national magazine award in the category of Best Digital Illustration. I also have contributed animation and post-production for various Juno Award and Much Music Video Award nominated music videos. In 2022 my children's book project "The Curious Invitation", created for William Joseph Agency, won three Anvil Awards. Later that same year I created the feature image for Greenpeace's demonstration at COP15 in Montreal, which hung 46 feet high in the downtown "Ring" sculpture. In 2023 the exhibit We Were Here: Stories From Early Chinatown that prominently featured my illustrations for showed at Heritage Park from January to May, after originally running at The Lougheed House. 2023 will also see the my public artwork series The Bison and The Dragon: Untold Tales installed on multiple walls in Calgary's Chinatown.
I have been featured as the cover artist of the Believer Magazine multiple times and in 2021 one of my illustrations for my series Escapes And Trapdoors: Diversions From Life In Poverty created for The Believer was a finalist for an American Society of Magazine Editors national magazine award in the category of Best Digital Illustration. I also have contributed animation and post-production for various Juno Award and Much Music Video Award nominated music videos. In 2022 my children's book project "The Curious Invitation", created for William Joseph Agency, won three Anvil Awards. Later that same year I created the feature image for Greenpeace's demonstration at COP15 in Montreal, which hung 46 feet high in the downtown "Ring" sculpture. In 2023 the exhibit We Were Here: Stories From Early Chinatown that prominently featured my illustrations for showed at Heritage Park from January to May, after originally running at The Lougheed House. 2023 will also see the my public artwork series The Bison and The Dragon: Untold Tales installed on multiple walls in Calgary's Chinatown.
Some clients include:
Saucony, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros Records, Universal Music Group, McDonald's, Puralator, University of Calgary, Polaris Music Prize, The Ringer, Reader's Digest Canada, Maclean's Magazine, Avenue Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, Plan Sponsor Magazine, The Believer Magazine, BIG Winter Classic, Beakerhead, Calgary Folk Music Festival, West Jet, Brita, Westwood Records, 604 Records, Republic Records, Columbia Records, The Calgary Underground Film Festival, Sled Island Music Festival, FFWD Weekly, CJSW 90.9 FM, CKXU 88.3 FM, Last Gang Records, Hollywood Records, Paper Bag Records, Glenbow Museum, Village Brewery, Wild Rose Brewery