A Body to remember time on earth
Created during my residency at Shiro Oni Studio in Japan, this work continues my exploration of hybrid creatures as symbols of transformation and survival. I was inspired by Japan’s endangered leopard cats, the Iriomote and Tsushima, and their conservation through artificial insemination. With this, I drew on shapeshifters from folklore of kaibyō (strange cats) and nekomata (mountain cat yokai).Surrounded by mountains and rivers, and by stories of life, decay, hope, and reverence for the land, this work wonders what life might adapt into when survival demands unity with the earth itself. "A Body To Remember Time On Earth" envisions a posthuman landscape where divine and monstrous chimeras roam regrown lands, carrying forward the memory of life long after our bodies have gone.oil on canvas - 16x20 inches - 2025
the future wears our skin
While in Japan, I was drawn to the figure of the wild boar (inoshishi), a spirit of war seen as both sacred and destructive, a guardian of the mountains and a pest in the fields. After the Fukushima nuclear evacuation, their numbers surged in abandoned towns in search of sustenance, a reminder of nature’s persistence.
In this work, the boar acts as spirit and flesh, and the survivor beneath its weight crawls through a scorched earth. “The Future Wears Our Skin” envisions what might grow from disaster, and that the future will wear what we leave behind.oil on canvas - 11x14 inches - 2025
yatagarasu’s return
oil on canvas - 16x20 inches - 2025
The three-legged crow, Yatagarasu, appears across myths in East Asia as a heavenly guide. It is a messenger from the sun, a sign of divine rebirth after tragedy. While in Japan, I saw crows everywhere: in the forests, along the rivers, and on my daily walks to my studio. Their presence felt ancestral, an echo of folklores of the past.
In this work, the Yatagarasu emerges again, its form both human and crow, returning to a changed world. The old world lingers within the new, its spirit taking shape as memory of our past. This creature embodies persistence, the endless cycle of life and death. It asks how myth endures through change, and how our ancestors see visions of humanity within the natural world.mother chimera
oil on canvas - 30x40 inches - 2023
This painting looks back to the beginning of humanity – to the waters we came from, to mythic mothers and prehuman ancestors. “Mother Chimera” merges the tales of mermaids, sea serpents, and dragons into a single origin being: a spirit of evolution.
This work references the Tiktaalik, the ancient fish that first walked on land, and the women of the sea, the Ama and Haenyeo, whose breath still links us to those primordial waters. The sea is maternal and monstrous, a mirror of creation and destruction, our first home and our eventual return. In this painting, I imagine posthumanism through the lens of prehumanity, what it meant before we stood on land.ancestral vengeance
oil on canvas - 30x40 inches - 2022
This work is a portrait of my family, rebellion, and becoming. Myself and future ancestors are reflected in this hybrid tiger as a future ancestor, as it walks through a lush forest into the light of a new world, the tail crushing a cherry blossom branch and its paw resting on a fallen eagle. These symbols, tied to Japanese and American imperialism are broken, the ancestor taking vengeance for its family and history.
As a Korean-Japanese American and lesbian immigrant from an unconventional family, I think often of my mother and sisters – how they broke patterns of patriarchy and shame. Their defiance became our new inheritance, a lineage of survival and reclaiming our selves. With family history rooted in imperialism, war, isolation, and migration, this creature serves as a warrior who moves towards the light carrying rage and love.
“Ancestral Vengeance” is a tribute to the forgotten and unnamed ancestors, and a message of solidarity and hope to our descendants. It imagines a future where we transform the pain of our histories into something alive, fierce, and free.