Tiffany Wong: Landscapes of the Invisible

*White Whale*. Earth pigments & embroidery on canvas. 2021

*Like Sapphires.* Earth pigments, graphite & gold leaf on canvas. 2021.

*The Way Home.* Earth pigments, China ink, golf leaf & embroidery on canvas. 2021.

*Birthday Cake*. Gouache, natural pigments, yarn, embroidery, cardstock & tufted material on canvas. 2022.

*Our Little Life is Rounded with a Sleep.* Gouache, natural pigments, embroidery, cardstock & tufted material on canvas. 2022.

*The Moon Hangs for You.* Gouache, natural pigments, yarn, embroidery, cardstock & tufted material on canvas. 2022.

*Persephone 2.* Earth pigments, China ink, avocado pit ink, golf leaf & embroidery on raw canvas. 2020.

Website: www.tiffanywongart.com / Instagram: @tiffanywlart

Artist and mother Tiffany Wong finds endless inspiration through her children and motherhood, as well as mythology and feminism. Her paintings act as landscapes of the invisible and instances of childhood memories and dreams. Wong creates natural inks from kitchen scraps and foraged plants, while integrating pigments and other mixed media elements into her work.

How did your creative journey begin?

I would say that my creative journey began when I was a kid. I have always liked making things, whether it be a bed for my stuffed animals made out of Kleenex boxes or a painting of flowers, I was always making something. I lived inside my head very much.

I obtained my B.F.A in 2012, majoring in Film Animation and Painting and Drawing from Concordia University in Montreal. However, I only started painting again around 2019, after the birth of my first child. I felt so lost in my 20s and had all this schooling but didn’t know how to effectively channel my creative energy. If only I had found abstract painting back then! When my first kid was born in 2018, I started making these small abstract paintings in pastel colours for fun that soothed and comforted me. Eventually, I had enough work to apply for my first art fair and the rest is history; I now paint professionally. I found that I needed painting more than ever as an outlet, to express all these big feelings about being a mother. I find abstract art to be so freeing while being so emotional and expressive, none of the figurative art that I ever made lets me express myself as freely. These days, my art practice has evolved a lot and I feel like I can never know enough ways to make art.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

My children and motherhood are the biggest inspirations for my work. To say becoming a mother was life changing is an understatement; all the physical changes my body went through and raising my two boys inspire me endlessly. I am fascinated by my children, how they are blank slates when they're born and experience things for the first time and how wondrous and scary the world is to them. I adore my 4 year old’s drawings and my children’s understanding of our world. My art is inspired by their learning and a lot of my shapes in my art are playful rudimentary shapes reminiscent of children’s drawings. You can say that my art is a love letter to my children. When people look at abstract art and dismiss it like: "My 5-year old can do that", my first thought is: "Of course he can! Because he gets to experience the world without all the inhibitions and prejudices of grown-ups"

My first favourite book when I was a child was Gyo Fujikawa’s Come, Follow Me and it began a lifelong love of fantastical worlds and books. A lot of my work is inspired by mythology, folklore and fantasy. As I continue my art journey, my work takes on more feminist themes and I take a lot of inspiration from female archetypes from literature and mythology. The mother, the damsel, the goddess, the heroine, the witch and the fairy are all female archetypes that have inspired my art. Before I start a painting, I sometimes like to imagine that I’m creating a non-representational painting of them.

To the smallest pebble and the biggest of mountains, nature is another endless source of inspiration. A simple walk in the park does wonders for me when I’m feeling blocked.

How has your work evolved over the last few years?

The pandemic helped my art practice a lot. Stuck inside with my then 1 year-old during the height of the pandemic, I would worry about my toddler eating or inhaling something toxic in my studio (among many things that I worried about). It was then that I started researching natural art materials and making my own inks. Reading and learning everything I can find about ink making and pigments, I became enamoured with the whole process. With the reality of a global pandemic, making my own art materials made me feel connected to the earth in a time where we were all collectively isolated from each other. I still try as much as possible to be green in my art practice, and I also reuse as much as I can. Currently, I am creating a body of work using canvas trimmings and old paintings in an effort to reduce my waste. They are inspired by motherhood and the archetype of the mother goddess.

With so much that happened in 2020, the tense political climate, the anti-Asian sentiment and the protests against racial injustice and systemic racism, I felt a need to make art that was inspired by my Chinese roots. It was my way of working through the non-stop turmoil of 2020 and reaffirming my identity. My work became influenced by Chinese art like embroidery, Chinese ink wash paintings, textiles and Buddhist imagery. Without all the trappings of everyday life, I spent my days learning about different art techniques, pigments and different embroidery stitches. My paintings became hybrid paintings of China ink, natural pigments and embroidery and I continue to work the same way in my art practice to this day. To this day, I am still addicted to learning different ways of making art.

I am still obsessed with all things textile related and continue to expand my knowledge whenever I can. In 2022, I completed a residency with Art Souterrain in Montreal, where textile artist Molly Bertheaud was my studiomate and I learned even more textile techniques like rug-hooking, rug-tufting and punch-needle embroidery from her. The series The Stories We Tell that I completed during that residency incorporates these new techniques. Along with everything I learned during the residency, the series that I am currently working on will incorporate even more different textiles techniques like appliqué and quilting. Textile art’s place as a domestic female art in history and its place in fine art today is very interesting to me.

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?

I don’t know if I can describe what a typical day in the studio looks like because I’m so busy and full days in the studio are hard to come by lately. They’re more like moments I have to myself in the day to make something to incorporate into my paintings at a later time. When I have down-time, I am punch-needling shapes onto an embroidery hoop or embroidering shapes onto raw canvas that will later be part of a larger composition. On the week-end ( I have a day job), I go to the studio to paint and I incorporate all the different bits of things that I made during the week into the piece(s) I'm making. Sometimes, this works out and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, the painting gets restretched into a smaller piece or it becomes part of a bigger piece. As someone who is kind of hard on themselves in real life, my art practice is forgiving; painting over parts that work and punching colours up with embroidery thread. I always feel like my paintings are in a way a collage because the bits and pieces of embroidered material and textile are glued and sewn onto the surface like a traditional collage.

Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?

The pandemic, watching my children grow up, aging, watching my parents age, motherhood. The passage of time has definitely impacted me and my work.

How has social media impacted your art career?

I would have no career if it weren't for social media.

My work is constantly evolving because of social media. I have met great customers online and am so lucky to have met these great talented artists online that inspire me too. Without social media, I would've never had the confidence to do this professionally. It means the world to me that my art has found so many homes and connects with so many people across the world.

What are your future goals and aspirations?

I would like to do more residencies and maybe do some shows overseas. For now, I just want the opportunity to always create - which I have right now. Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic put a lot of things in perspective for me. I am careful to not set too many goals because I am so busy. I nearly burntout during the pandemic when daycare temporarily closed, I'm careful right now to not put too many things on my plate. For now, I would just like to focus my energy and create a body of work that I adore. I am faithful that the rest will come if it’s meant to come. When the kids are grown however, sky's the limit!

Guest UserMarch 29, 2023