art by Carol Kong

About Me

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My art is inspired by the quiet interruptions of daily life. The moments when you stop just to stare at a shadow on the wall, or to wonder why light is reflecting a certain way, or to try and describe a colour with words. The struggle to seize these moments of poetry in life and recreate them is my effort to better understand the mysteries of nature.

 

I am currently working with the mediums of oil paints, stoneware clay, and wool as separate but interrelated practices. I am excited by the differences in materiality and the emotional response of visual and tactile qualities, both in the creation and appreciation of art.

 

To fully immerse myself in the meditative process, I mostly paint directly from life. This allows me to engage with the subtleties and slight nuances that emerge only from being intensely present. Painting has been my emotional release; how I quiet a chaotic mind. Among the ups and downs of daily life, no matter how socially connected, we journey alone. This solitude gets channeled into my painting as a longing to take pause and find poetic beauty in the forgettable moments that pass quickly. I empathize with the ordinary things that go unnoticed, just there, wanting to be seen. By placing paint on canvas, I transcribe how I see the mundane, just as it is: extraordinary.

 

My ceramics practice focuses on fluidity of form and negative space. Playing between the boundaries of amorphous and defined edges, and experimenting with different textures, I create one-of-a-kind vessels. This is a sensual interaction with the clay, as I feel and listen, allowing each form to become unto itself while merely facilitating with my hands. 

 

My textile crafts currently focus on whimsical creatures with minimalistic lines and full forms, made by needle-felting wool. This practice is an outlet of pure happiness and childish joy.

 

Outside my art practice, I am a Professional Engineer in civil and transportation infrastructure. I focus on planning, designing, and implementing public transit improvements at the City of Vancouver. The parallels between my engineering background and artistic expression show strongly in my analytical approach and intense curiosity. Both these pursuits are influenced by my journey from growing up in Toronto, soul searching in Calgary, humbling adventures through the Rockies, and growing community roots in Vancouver and the Okanagan Valley. I am continually searching to understand my identity as a Chinese-Canadian, and I am so grateful to be freely living, working, and expressing myself on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish Peoples and the Syilx Okanagan Peoples.

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