Chongqing, China. 

Before the megapolis of 30 million people became a cyberpunk landscape, I imagine a port city built in layers from the river to the mountains. I was born there but left as a child. Over my lifetime, the city has erupted into a cyberpunk megapolis of 30 million residents where towering buildings are connected by endless stairs and elevators.  The "Chongqing Plates" are an exercise in nostalgia and exploration of an unreliable memory. The plates are loosely based on my own fading memories, clouded by my travel to other places, and biased by the old Chongqing in Wu Guanzhong's paintings.  I wanted to capture what little of the city I had left, permanently in clay, before it diluted further. 

Crete, Greece 

I hiked in the south of Crete in the summer of 2025. Amidst the olive trees and forest-lined beaches, were landscapes, barren with rocks and not much else. In these areas, desertification was at work and the  rock layers were largely exposed. The soil was loosely held together by wild onions and the occasional shrub, and would turn in to a dusty, glittering wind when the goats or occasional hiker roamed through. It wasn't until I returned from the trip that I learned temperatures had reached extremes of more than 110F and wild fires and earthquakes broke out throughout the island throughout that summer. It is no wonder that this landscape birthed legends like the Minotaur, whose anger triggered shakes in the ground, and Daedalus whose ingenuity to escape the island only fell short from his pride and the inescapable heat of the Cretan sun. These legends made this beautiful but hostile landscape even more intriguing. I wonder how these legends would have reacted to that scorching, earthquake-filled summer through these works. 

Crane's Beach, Ipswich. 

In the fall of 2025, Crane Beach opened its shores on a moonless night for star gazers. I felt as if I walked into a surrealist painting. Above me, the sky was an utter black canvas, scattered with millions of glittering stars. Beneath my feet, the sand glowed faintly white in the darkness, soft and inviting, while the gentle sound of crashing waves and the salty scent of the nearby ocean filled the air. In the distance, the shadows of trees, rocks, and marsh grasses blended into the landscape, mysterious yet friendly. The grandeur of this space—where earth met the galaxies, water met air, and sand met stone—felt complete. Walking toward the water, I was overwhelmed by the sense of wholeness and calmness in that moment.