iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz is about a group of bots (and one human) starting a hand-pulled noodle shop in the newly independent country of California, and it's honestly such a delightful, heartwarming, and yummy read. 🍜🪐📚🌈 #booksky #scifi #speculativefiction

Front cover of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. Hardcover book with a light turquoise background, featuring a colorful illustration of a robotic hand holding chopsticks pulling up steaming noodles, surrounding by little robots against a San Francisco cityscape.

A hand is holding the book, with a framed artwork and house plants in the background.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

"Pick A Colour" by Souvankham Thammavongsa is a slice of life story about a retired boxer turned nail salon owner and her staff of Susans. 📚💙

Hardcover copy of "Pick A Colour" by Souvankham Thammavong. The cover is white with a scattering of colourful painted nail applications. The title text is in a blocky black sans serif typeface along the top and bottom edges of the book. The author's name is vertical along the spine's edge on the left.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

"If Cats Disappeared From the World," by Genki Kawamura, translated Eric Selland. An off-kilter reflection on life and death. 📚💙 #cats

Softcover copy of "If Cats Disappeared From the World," by Genki Kawamura, translated Eric Selland, with a cream colored cover with a black kitten standing beneath the title text.

The book is stacked on top of another book, at the edge of a pink plaid wool picnic blanket on the grass. The edge of a spiral notebook is visible at the bottom of the photo.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Trickster Drift, by Eden Robinson. I loved Book 2. Jared is such a terrific character who really makes you want to root for him through the whole range of possible messes, human and otherwise. 📚💙 #indigenousauthors

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, by Eddy Boudel Tan, is about a Chinese refugee family from Brunei who resettle in a small town in British Columbia. It follows the adult children who, after years apart, return home after their father goes missing. A melancholy story at the borders of magic realism. 🌈📚💙

Cover of the book The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, a novel by Eddy Boudel Tan, with white and red blocky text against a dark blue image of a pool outside a motel under the night sky and full moon reflected in the water.

A hand holds the book.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

The sun is out and I'm reading Son of a Trickster, by Eden Robinson. Eden has the best, biggest laugh and I was lucky enough to get a signed copy after hearing her read during my residency Banff Centre. 💜 #nativeauthors 📚💙 #booksky

Front cover of Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson, light blue with tree silhouettes, the title and author name in blocky text, and a galaxy patterned sea otter.

There is sunny outdoor lighting and a glimpse of my red plaid wool blanket on the ground while I read in the park.

Interior title page of Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson with Eden's signature which reads, "Yowtz Jenie <3 So lovely to share the Banff side with u <3 Eden Robinson"

There is sunny outdoor lighting and a glimpse of my red plaid wool blanket on the ground while I read in the park.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Metal Rabbit, my dad's sign, on the 17th anniversary of his death. Part of my Asian Diasporic Zodiac series, the fifth drawing during my 4-week Banff Centre residency, in honor of my dad's beloved childhood pet, a rabbit named Fifth who was the fifth child in the family. 🐡 #inkdrawing #rabbits

Ink drawing of a rabbit whose body is made of metal: metal scales, wrought metal bars, engraved metal plates, and polished wood legs and ears. A "melting" metal bird stands on the rabbit's back.

The drawing is on paper and a hand with a sweater sleeve holds the drawing in front of a mountain landscape.

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 30/04/2026

birds are dragons

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Just finished Empire of AI. Karen Hao does a great job of explaining the many problems of generative AI. The book is comprehensive, easy to understand, calls for accountability, and provides examples of what could be done differently. My cat Mintaka would recommend it as well. 💡📚💙 #stopai #noai

Long haired black cat next to a vase of red gerber daisies and a hardcover copy of Karen Hao's book, Empire of AI, on a wooden table surface.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

My solo show, The Deer Garden, at Eastern Tennessee State University's Slocumb Galleries. The Deer Garden title comes from my mother's name, which alludes to the garden of celestial gods. She believes her name means she is someone who is meant to stay, long after others have gone. #contemporaryart

View of artist's books, framed prints, and table-based art installations in a white box gallery.

Two plastic Adirondack-style chairs and a TV tray table with an inlaid hand-carved woodblock in the tabletop. A framed woodblock print hangs on the wall above the table of a deer and clouded leopard in a cyclical chase. The block and print are a gradient of light to dark jade green.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

View of my studio at Banff Centre during my four-week residency in March. 🐡 #contemporaryart #banff #inkdrawing 💜🖼️

Artist Jenie Gao sitting at a wooden work table holding a pen while working on five ink drawings on paper. Jenie is of East Asian descent, with short black hair cut and a side fade. They are wearing a cerulean turtleneck, a white cable knit cardigan, and a green and red jade donut pendant necklace.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Fire Ox, after the bovine, Sleeping Buffalo, from my residency at Banff Centre. The Fire Ox contains yin fire and yin earth, like the controlled prescribed burn of fire that generates new earth. Resilient but also tempestuous, water and winter bring balance for this sign. #buffalo 🐡 #inkdrawing

Ink drawing of a walking buffalo whose back transforms into a treed mountainscape. Fire and smoke rises from the buffalo's back, resembling a prescribed burn.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Hot tip of the day: These are moderation lists to block accounts that are known to scrape Bluesky users' data for training AI models/ machine learning. Subscribe and select Block Accounts. Everyone on the moderation list will be blocked. 🧵1/4 for more info + instruction links. #NoAI #StopAI

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Water Rat, part of my Asian Diasporic Zodiac series. The rat is associated with the season of winter and the north, but also dynamic yang energy. So it felt fitting to draw the Water Rat after the frozen waterfalls near my residency at Banff Centre. #inkdrawing #ratlovers #chinesezodiac 🐡

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Earth Rabbit, part of my Asian Diasporic Zodiac series. For this Earth Rabbit, I am taking inspiration from the snowy mountains during my Banff Centre residency, from the soil that is strong enough to protect the roots of a thriving forest yet gentle enough to nurture life. #inkdrawing 🐡 #rabbits

Surreal ink drawing of a rabbit whose body transforms into a mountain landscape surrounded by snow and trees.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Wood Boar, part of my Asian Diasporic Zodiac series which reimagine the zodiac animals as if they were shaped by the landscapes of Turtle Island / North America. Inspired by the spruce trees and snow on my daily walk to the Leighton Studios during my Banff Centre art residency. #inkdrawing 🐡

Surreal ink drawing of a wild boar whose skin is patterned with wood bark and back is covered in spruce tree branches.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Movies and TV prepared me to see way more weddings end with someone getting stood up at the altar than seems economically reasonable.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

🔥 Year of the Fire Horse 🔥 I am thinking of volcanoes, how magma breaks but also sculpts earth. How the living land reimagines itself beyond artificial borders. Fire Horse brings destructive energy. What will we create in place of what's destroyed? #inkdrawing 🖤🖋️ #lunarnewyear #yearofthehorse 🐡

Ink drawing on white cotton rag paper of a fiery galloping horse surrounded by frenetic flames. The artist Jenie Gao is holding the drawing in their left hand.

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Jane Shi | 皮爬高 echolalia echolalia is out now @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

i’m somewhere btwn “well that’s not surprising” & “this is just horrifying & am confused why some of these revelations aren’t a bigger deal in mainstream media & everyday society” about the epstein file dumps & also can't imagine what it’s like being a survivor & having your unredacted name included

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Two sisters narrate The Princess of Thornwood. The elder struggles to care for her now nonverbal sister after an accident. The younger sister, in a concurrent magical realm, seeks aid for their family. Compelling, moving, albeit predictable, but enjoyable. Love the #disability representation. 💙📚🪐

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Jane Shi | 皮爬高 echolalia echolalia is out now @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

🎵 get your chicken elsewhere 🎵 *Clap clap clapclapclap*

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

I have an upcoming solo show, The Deer Garden, at Pratt Munson Gallery at Munson Museum in upstate New York. Come say hello! Opening reception: Feb 6, 3 to 5 pm. Exhibition dates: Feb 6 - Mar 6, 2026. #contemporaryprintmaking #printsky #newenglandart #newyorkgalleries

Cover image and promotion for The Deer Garden solo exhibition by Jenie Gao at Pratt Munson Gallery at the Munson Museum. There is a photo by Khim Mata Hipol of the artist standing with one of their artworks, a large mahogany wood dining table with inlaid hand-carved green and red woodblocks that resemble jade. There is a diptych of two canvases on the wall. The gallery wall is painted red.

The word MUNSON is at the top of the web page screenshot.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Thank you to Robert Kuang of Stir Magazine for writing beautifully about my exhibition, Where Mountain Cats Live. At grunt gallery in #vancouverbc until Jan 17, 2026. Read the article: www.createastir.ca/articles/gru... #contemporaryart #printmaking #woodcut

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

My solo exhibition, Where Mountain Cats Live, is on view at grunt gallery thru Jan 17th in #vancouverbc. More info: grunt.ca/exhibitions/... #contemporaryart #printmaking #printsky #woodcut #installationart #taiwaneseamericanart #chineseamericanart #asiandiaspora

A contemporary art gallery with painted sage green walls.

The centerpiece of the installation is a circular table with teal and lilac tablecloths draped to the floor, elevated by a low plinth. There is a spinning circular lazy Susan at the center of the table made of a lacquered wood featuring an inlaid woodcut.

Mirrors on the far wall cast crystal-like reflections. There is a wooden dining chair in the corner and framed artworks on the walls.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Thank you for attending my opening! 💚💜 My solo show, Where Mountain Cats Live, is up until Jan 17 at grunt gallery in Vancouver.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Press coverage for the Guiding Ethos exhibition that I recently curated at Trout Museum of Art. On view Oct 11, 2025 to January 18, 2026. Trout Museum's 'Guiding Ethos' is Rooted in Collectivism, Cultural Stewardships and Resistance: shepherdexpress.com/culture/visu... #contemporaryart

Shepherd Express headline: Trout Museum's 'Guiding Ethos' is Rooted in Collectivism, Cultural Stewardships, and Resistance.

Sub-headline: Featuring artists from the Midwest, both East and West Coasts and British Columbia, “Guiding Ethos” spans mediums of painting, textile, sculpture, installation and digital media.

Written by Ben Slowey.

Image is of David Najib Kasir's oil painting of children playing surrounded by rubble and sacred geometry patterns.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

My recent solo show, The Integrity of a Story, at Alberta Printmakers Society. Much of this new work I made during my art residency at Women's Studio Workshop. 💗 Thank you to the A/P team and Calgary community for being gracious hosts. 💚 #printmaker #woodcut #contemporaryart #printsky 💜🖼️ 🐡

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Current reading: Against the Loveless World, by Palestinian American author and activist Susan Abulhawa. 💙📚 #palestinianwriters #decolonizeyourbookshelf

Front cover of the novel, Against the Loveless World, by Susan Abulhawa.

It's a hardcover book with jewel toned blues, pinks, violets, and peaches in an abstract geometric design overlaid on a starry night sky. The text is gold and white.

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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

This is what I want from my reps or I don't want them at all, tbh

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

As a millennial, I recall a simpler time on the Internet when pedophiles had usernames like PrincessPeach1982 and Californiagurl69xo. Today pedophiles have usernames like POTUS. 😞 #potus

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

One of my famous installation guides. I do my best to be kind to the curators and installation teams that handle my work. For my upcoming solo show, The Integrity of a Story, at Alberta Printmakers, opening Sept 26 in Calgary, AB. #contemporaryprintmaking #printmakers #printsky #installationart

Photo of a word processing document that contains step-by-step instructions for installing a work of art, plus a sketch of the artwork. The art installation in the sketch consists of a custom-built TV tray table, two chairs, and a framed wall piece. There are dramatic shadows cast onto the floor in the drawing.

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Dan Hon @danhon.com · 04/09/2025

Remember in films that lifelike avatars would be all "I'm sorry, my limited programming does not allow me to answer that question" and now we have LLM that will happily generate incorrect answers!

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

My other kitty, Marigold, and yet another graphic novel about cats. Cats of the Louvre, by Taiyo Matsumoto. #graphicnovel #comics #cats 💙📚

Photo of a long-haired black cat lying on a table next to a hardcover book entitled Cats of the Louvre. The cover features an illustration of a white cat on a Queen Anne style chair against a red gallery wall with two framed paintings, and several small illustrated cats around the title.

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austin_walker @austinwalker.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I know a lot of you have already heard or read about BDS Movement's call against Microsoft, and felt weird and bad about it all, but decided to move forward as normal because of some degree of ambiguity. "What service is Microsoft providing?" Here it is, clear as day. A direct line to death.

According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Thanks to the control it exerts over Palestinian telecommunications infrastructure, Israel has long intercepted phone calls in the occupied territories. But the indiscriminate new system allows intelligence officers to play back the content of cellular calls made by Palestinians, capturing the conversations of a much larger pool of ordinary civilians.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Decided to scare myself by reading Octavia Butler's prescient novel, Parable of the Sower. Written in 1993. Set in 2024-2027. The book follows a disabled Black youth who devises survival strategies amidst high unemployment, addiction, militarized states, privatized cities, and religious zealots.🪐📚💙

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

A stranger took a candid photo of me making a #watercolor #painting from a viewpoint at Cypress Mountain. 💜🖼️🐡 #sketchbook #enpleinair #mountains

Photo of the artist, Jenie Gao, sitting on a rocky ledge overlooking a mountain and ocean view. Jenie has black hair and olive skin, is holding a sketchbook, and is wearing a green tank top, bucket hat, and shorts.

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David Palumbo-Liu @palumboliu.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

I dream of a time when we elect leaders who are not genociders. #FreePalestine.

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MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Na’amod @naamoduk.bsky.social (British Jews against occupation) protesting Trump’s visit to the UK near Downing Street today ✊🏽🇵🇸❤️

A group of protestors standing in front of King Charles Street Arch holding Palestine flags and wearing keffiyeh. Some of the protestors are holding up a big yellow banner which says ‘Starmer, will you oppose ethnic cleansing? UK Jews say: Stand up to Trump!’

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

My cat, Mintaka, plus literature. Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. 💙📚 #catlovers #blackcats #booksky #graphicnovels #comics 🐈‍⬛

Photo of my hand—with an orange long sleeve—booping my cat, Mintaka, on the nose. Mintaka is a fluffy longhaired black cat with gold eyes.

On the table adjacent to Mintaka is the book, Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. The cover is black, white, and yellow and consists of a line art portrait of Junji Ito at the bottom, his wife at the top, and their two cats, a white cat with a black cap on the left and a fluffy tabby on the right.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

One pleasant surprise when I joined Bluesky earlier this year is how robust and active the #printmaking community is here. Follow and share your work with over 100+ folks on the #Printsky feed! 🌟 It searches for a variety of print-related terms and filters out AI content.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Formosan Sika Deer keep their spots long after they grow into adulthood. They are indigenous to Taiwan, and I've included them in my newest #woodcut and #printmaking projects as a part of familial storytelling. #printpromptmonday #growth #taiwaneseamericanartist 💜🖼️

Closeup of Jenie Gao's latest woodcut in progress and a carving tool. The artwork features a Formosan Sika Deer and Clouded Leopard leaping in a cyclical chase.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

I was fortunate to have my work in Go West, a group exhibition showcasing Asian American artists in Boulder, CO this year. Thank you to Dairy Arts Center, curator Stella Witcher, and jurors Rajiv Menon + Roseline Nevling for including me in this showcase. #contemporaryart #printmaking #woodcut

Photo of a white cube contemporary art gallery called Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO. Jenie Gao’s artworks are on the far wall: two woodblock print diptychs in blue (left artwork) and green/red (right artwork), and also on a plinth in the center of the room, an artist’s book designed to resemble a Chinese takeout menu.

There are a few other artworks in this shot, including a green chain link fence installation, a 2D photograph, and a sculpture of hands holding pingpong paddles.

Photo by Wes Magyar.

Photo of a white cube contemporary art gallery called Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO. This is a close-up of Jenie Gao’s woodblock diptychs.

On left: My Migration Route | Iris Roots Clean the Water, two long pale blue woodblock prints on canvas of a map of the Great Lakes overlaid with an iris flower.

On right: Cycle | Breaking and Making: Pigeon and Fènghuáng, two woodblock prints on canvas hung like scrolls, of a pigeon (left) and fènghuáng / Chinese phoenix (right), in an elliptical chase designed to look like large green/red jade pendants.

Photo by Wes Magyar.

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Catsuka @catsuka.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Stickers by Antony Ho. linktr.ee/antonyho #JapanExpo2025

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

We'll Prescribe You a Cat: A Novel. Chill read at an easygoing, slightly off beat pace with very mild twists as the plot reveals itself. Almost as if an aloof cat wrote it lol. It won't make my favorites list but I finished it quickly and enjoyed it! 💙📚 #cats #catlovers

Front cover of We'll Prescribe You a Cat: A Novel, by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda.

The cover is light blue with an illustration of a grey and white tabby cat perched inside of an orange medical prescription container. The title text is in a black serif typeface.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

The Deer Garden, #woodcut completed during my Women’s Studio Workshop residency. The woodblock will be embedded in a custom-built TV tray table to resemble inlaid jade, in an exploration of what it means to steward my mother’s stories and home. #printsky #contemporaryprint #asianamericanartists 🐡

Woodcut printed in a fountain roll of light to dark jade green, designed to resemble hand-carved jade. The imagery features a Clouded Leopard and Formosan Sika Deer in a cyclical chase against a wood-like pattern.

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The Deer Garden contends with the changing landscape surrounding my mother’s home in rural Kansas, as suburbanization encroaches.

Since 2024, my spouse and I have taken turns visiting my mother to help her with house repairs and to assert our presence to overly inquisitive real estate developers and new neighbors.

In my mother’s home, we have meals sitting across from each other at a TV tray table in her kitchen. In this modest, intimate setting, my mother steps into one of her most profound roles as our family’s knowledge keeper. Her stories—historical, allegorical, almost mythic, and sometimes prophetic—come alive.

The Deer Garden features a Formosan Sika Deer and Clouded Leopard in a continuous, cyclical chase. As I pester my mother on specifics, I find myself negotiating what it means to be a good historian, researcher, and steward. The “mountain lions” outside her childhood bedroom in Taiwan turn out to be feral cats. The deer outside her windows in Kansas become stand-ins for celestial gods.

My prints reflect this cyclical tension, as I set up strict matrices for works that are inherently about the immeasurable qualities of stories that can never—perhaps should never—be rendered quite perfectly.

The final woodcut is designed to resemble a piece of hand-carved jade, which will be inlaid on the surface of a TV tray table. Shout-out to Woody at WSW for taking my sketches and crafting such a gorgeous table to hold this work. 💚

The inimitable Woody, staff member at Women’s Studio Workshop, who brought my design drawings by building this custom TV tray table to hold my woodblock for The Deer Garden.

Here Woody is sanding down the table for final test fitting to inlay the woodblock on the tabletop.

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