"Journal" becomes "The Sandpit"

An exercise in creative exposure therapy — posting the raw, the unedited, and the unfinished.

This corner of my website never became quite what I imagined it could be. Until now. I'm renaming this journal page to The Sandpit — found through a bit of an AI fusion smorgasbord, bouncing between Gemini and Claude to find the right title and vibe. (Interesting to deduce their personalities with the same task) **Edit: Turns out the designer version of this workflow is Weavy/Figma Weave. How did I go make 2 human beings and come back to workforce to find, completely new workflows and design softwares taking over when the previous 20+ years it was Adobe as the powerhouse. Wild.

The name transcends my creative life perfectly. Since I last posted (six years ago!), I entered the hardest, most important job one will ever do: motherhood. I always knew I wanted to be a mom. What I didn't see coming, and I don't think anyone truly can, is how motherhood opens a Pandora's box. A psychological world of inner child healing, breaking generational trauma, confronting vulnerabilities, letting go of unhelpful hypervigilance, and navigating the harsh realities of how the world actually views mothers... and children for that matter.

So, alas, here I am UNcurating a space to brain dump my art (doodles old and new). "Shitposting", as the internet calls it.

And hopefully, AI doesn’t scan it and regurgitate it as AI slop.

Welcome to the Sandpit!

**Visual rebrand to come 😉

I'll kick off with old stuff from my Procreate folders. I want to reflect and self critique my digital sketches, see any themes, commonalities or treatments I was experimenting with. Perhaps some insights will emerge that I can compare with who and where I am now.

And then the next post, I'll dive into my recent commissioned projects.

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"Shitposting" a shitshow of a gallery. Okay no, it's not that bad, but it's chaotic (well, hence Sandpit!). I see myself yee and yaw between loose flowing mono lines to textured painterly strokes. I know I was playing and experiemnting with the trends at the time (clean flat vector illustrations), but I'm appreciating the use of vibrant colour blocking against soft neutral grounds, repetitive organic patterns, and playing with scale: putting tiny unexpected creatures here and there (Hello ladybird! Hiya whimsical walrus lad). I didn't quite realise my tendency to retreat to botanical elements as well. Plus, there's always something about electric blue that I end up gravitating towards (even now, as I sit in my cobalt blue blouse typing this - coincidence?). It always just pops without being too jarring even next to delicate pink or vanilla.

The last illustration though totally hits differently now. It holds a lot of nostalgia. Reminds me of Sundays at Pine & Bamboo Garden in my hometown. My parents and I would get there right when it opened, before the church crowd arrived and the wait became impossible. My parents were in the wholesale food business, delivering to Asian restaurants across the midwest so dim sum always felt like an extension of that world. Familiar faces, familiar food and the classic courteous head nods.

Dim sum was never quiet. Sizzling carts, mini bamboo steamers stacked to the ceiling, flagging down the auntie with the black bean chicken claws (IYKYK) before she wheeled past your table. The tally card filling up one crimson stamp at a time placed on the pink table cloths next to the hot tea in chunky handless tea cups.

Egg tarts always came last. My favourite. Not too sweet, warm, flaky, custardy. The punctuation at the end of the meal. It wouldn't be dim sum without egg tarts.

I remember the "Jade" on the tally card was for Jade Garden; a nod to a place in London's Chinatown my husband and I used to like. Sadly, it's gone now. Chinatown London hits different these days after returning back to London. Still searching for a dim sum spot that doesn't make me wince at the bill. There aren't a lot of cart service ones, understandably with less real estate in a historical city like London. To be fair, Austin only had one that I knew of which closed during the pandemic, BUT did have a come back couple years ago. The US coastal big cities are where it's at: I miss you, Boston!

So, this one is for the Chinese diaspora families who know exactly what Sunday morning smells like. The steam, the noise, the carts, the chaos. The egg tarts at the end.

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Welcome to The Sandpit. Where I post the raw, the unfinished, and the things that made me pick up a stylus. No agenda. Just making.

🥟🫖

"Designing is the first signal of human intention"

A rough edit but felt cute - might delete later.

An interviewee asked me recently, nice to see your client work, what about your own work and style - can you show a bit on that?

I realized, I haven't been asked that in awhile! At Uni, I remember I described myself more on the minimalist side and was in love with Dutch design and Swiss design. More Dutch design because of its playfulness. I also got from peers/teachers that there's a common use of linear elements and colorfulness. (I did use a lot of string/yarn for my designs and installations) I was also challenged back in the day with budget limits as a student. I couldn't justify buying the good paint or these lights that I thought could truly convey my "artist statement". In a way, it allowed me to think lean, be resourceful and think outside the box. (No lights? How about glow in the dark paint?!) But now though, what's my style as a designer that illustrates me, my soul, my ethos - not my clients'. Initially, I showed him a few experimental illustrations I did last year when I did some index card studies. They were bold colors, flowing forms, slightly non-sensical - I was just playing with visual textures. Experimental. However, it didn't feel sufficient - it wasn't enough to showcase who I am, but I feel like that's a long discussion. Definitely not enough time during an unstructured 30 min initial call interview. How do I show that and how does it balance with my client work or is it okay for it to be completely different?

As a wee little design student, I fell in love with installations. Activating a space that was once empty with no narrative you wouldn't even think twice about it, and then the next it could be filled with strong resonating content and stories or just activating your senses, different from your everyday life. This was before murals were a trend and before ad agencies did so many experiential advertising like I remember when Droga5 agency's JayZ Decoded campaign was such a big deal (I mean as it should). What I wanted to do and one of my idols is Ann Hamilton. I think I asked a professor how do people do these installations and have a career in it? I remember the answer was surrounded around fellowships and grants. Basically, I interpreted it as the classic starving artist route. Being raised by strict Asian parents, that route was a no-go. I mean I'm already a huge rebel for even thinking of going to get my BFA. I even snuck in Architecture school as a possible major in my college search just to attempt to keep things normal-ish and show my parents that I'm thinking of somewhat of a fruitful future. Lately, I keep coming back to why I even got into the passion which was drawing and painting. Before, being an illustrator in my eyes had always been maybe a children's book illustrator or doing poster art which is also the starving artist route, but nowadays, there's way more plausible and fruitful avenues and I think has a wider audience especially with social media. Maybe it's just a trend... Well regardless, as we get more integrated with lifestyles surrounded by data and tech, we'll need to hang on to what's most human. Though saying that, there's AI that can regurgitate a Rembrandt in seconds. But that's the keyword, regurgitate. We need to keep creating more human things or things that activate human senses, feelings, and support our emotional intelligence. "Designing is the first signal of human intention" and I think we'll continue to learn what that means as we further define AI and understand all of the 4th industrial revolution's data.

Ok, end rant; basically, I'm going to make an effort to post illustrations/doodles/whatever I create for fun on here. They probably won't make much sense, but with time, I'm hoping I'll be able to find a thread or pattern or something that'll help guide me and formulate a concept/mission statement.

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This color palette is inspired from my wedding planning boards galore. Probably from some blog or some pinterest that called it a jewel palette. I expanded from it, but liked this kind of Dr Seuss world. Originally it was one landscape, but I found a better focus and better moments when cropped.

Hello Austin!

Test post before I brain dump all creative thoughts in here. ;)