I trained as a clinical laboratory scientist at Stanford Hospital and worked as a microbiologist for most of my career. My fascination with nature started with the wild vegetation in the lush hills of Hong Kong. I was delighted with the amazing variety of plants when I came to California as a college student. Even in my work in the health environment I was charmed by the beauty and complexity of the microorganism especially fungi and various parasites. Through the years I have kept painting and drawing things that fuel my imagination. As a microbiologist, I was trained to observe minute details under high magnification and that practice helped me to see more than just with the naked eye. I realize I can find beauty anywhere in nature no matter how minute.

 

I started seriously working with watercolor when I enrolled in the Botanical Illustration class lead by Mary L. Harden at the S.F. Botanical Garden in 2008. The impressive collections at the Strybing Arboretum re-ignited my passion and interest in the plant world. I want to paint and to share the beauty and complexity that I see in plants I encounter especially the strange and unusual specimens.

 

I have participated in exhibitions organized by Mary L. harden to benefit the Conservatory of Flowers, the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture, Marin General Hospital, and the AIDS National Memorial Grove. In the past years, I participated in four separate exhibits at UCSF Faculty Alumni House under Mary L. Harden's tutelage- Medicinal Plants, Native Plants of the California Wine Country, Intoxicating Plants and most recently Inked Botanicals. I had showed works in the Native Plants exhibit at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area's Marin Visitor Center, Native American Plants exhibit at the Lindsay Museum and Mesoamerican Cloud Forest Plants exhibit at the SF Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.