Drawing outdoors holds a special place in my earliest memories. With a nomadic upbringing, constant movement and change were familiar, and drawing journals became my touchstone. Capturing the essence of a place, like encapsulating a thought on a page, fosters a profound connection.

This journey led me to the Rhode Island School of Design and a career in design. Over the years, I've contributed to leading companies and taught at institutions such as The Fashion Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design (CE), and the School of Visual Arts.

More than two decades later, I decided to return to art school for my MFA at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, completing a full circle with a focus on the natural environment.

This new phase of my journey is exhilarating and humbling as I explore the intersection of art and design, and the beauty and challenges of our relationship with this place we call ‘home’.

"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present."

– Anaïs Nin (diarist and essayist)

Photo credit: my mother & M. Lau