Where (Who) Resides
2025
45 × 38”
Oil on canvas

Carries (On)
2025-26
17 × 22” or variable
Cotton thread, button

Reconstructed from cotton thread, this work reimagines a childhood toy Slinky, forming the gesture of two hands clasped together.

Through familiar material and an intimate form, it reflects on how family and lived experience shape memory. Borrowing Slinky’s inherent motion, its continuous forward roll, memory is not fixed in the past, but persists as an ongoing movement. It carries forward into the present, shaping our responses and choices as we move through time.

Mouthful of Life Cycle
2025-26
20 × 29”
Oil on wood panel

Mouthful of Life Cycle - Seeding I
2026
4 × 4 × 2”
Clay, oil pastel, acrylic paint, birch wood block

Mouthful of Life Cycle - Seeding II
2026
4 × 4 × 2”
Clay, oil pastel, colored pencil, acrylic paint, birch wood block

Abstract painting of a dark, rocky landscape with a campfire and three figures around it, against a mostly grey and black background.

Everything that Exists is Matter?
2024
24 x 30”
Acrylic on canvas

Gallery wall featuring three landscape paintings with headphones on a bench below, in an art gallery with additional artwork and information panels.

Installation of Art in the Park Residency Exhibition

Developed during my time working in nature, including the Art in the Park residency, this series responds to the subtle complexity of forest environments. Moss, rock, soil, and shifting light patterns became sites of sustained attention, revealing a landscape defined not by stillness, but by constant, quiet activity.

The audio component originates from a field recording collected during a sketching session at Bear Creek Falls. Within the dominant sound of rushing water, a distinct bubbling—rising, gurgling, and swirling—emerged unexpectedly. This sound evolved into a central motif, functioning as a metaphor for continuous movement, accumulation, and release.

The work engages the tension between perceived stillness and underlying dynamism. Rather than framing nature as a passive site for human reflection, the series considers it as an active system in which we are already implicated.

In this context, the work shifts away from familiar narratives of connection toward a more urgent question: whether awareness alone is sufficient. As ecological instability intensifies, the work asks what it means to move beyond observation and toward responsibility.

A dark, abstract painting of a forest scene with tall trees painted in shades of red, orange, and black, with a figure standing among the trees.

Stealing From Earth
2025
30 x 30”
Oil on canvas

Oil painting Swift Moment of Dusk by Shirley W Liu

Swift Moment of Dusk
2025
30 x 30”
Oil on canvas

Oil painting The Hum of Life by Shirley W Liu

The Hum of Life
2025
30 x 30”
Oil on canvas

Chasing Waterfalls (Jakob)
2025
13 × 17”
Oil on wood panel

Diamond Ring
2025
2.5 x 2 x 1.5”
Reclained keyboard, Sterling Silver, Jewelry box

Words have become the new diamonds—precious, traded, and shaped for value. The key symbolizes the growing power of language, especially as it multiplies and mutates in digital form.

A plastic container filled with black computer keyboard keys on top of a wooden surface.

Produce of the Day : Keyboards
2025
8 x 6 x 1”
Reclaimed keyboard, Polystyrene foam, Clean film, Paper

Close-up of a product label on a computer keyboard box, with text about the product of 'Dopamine Era - Keyboards', ingredients, instructions, and expiration date.

Borrowing from the market’s produce, the reflection turns to how language and the right to record have become—mass-produced, consumed, and discarded. In an ever-shifting data stream, we devour and update our database yet struggle to hold attention. The lifespan of these ‘produce’ is reduced to fleeting moments. Yet paradoxically, their value has been inflated beyond measure, if wielded with precision.

White foam packaging tray containing a white selfie stick with a telescoping pole, a rectangular stand, and small plastic parts, placed on a wooden surface.

Produce of the Day : Selfie Stick
2025
14.5 x 7.5 x 2.5”
Plaster of paris, Polystyrene foam, Clean film, Paper

Package label for a selfie stick with ingredients listing calcium sulfate hemihydrate from Paris and a warning about eye irritation. The label includes expiration date, packed date, and barcode.
Abstract painting featuring swirling shades of purple, white, green, and blue, resembling a landscape with mountains and a river.

Something That’s Changed Yet Never Changes (Neon mountain)
2024
12 x 9”
Oil on canvas

An underwater scene with large blue fish swimming over a landscape of mountains, greenery, and roads, painted in a surreal style.

Transient
2023-24
57 x 30”
Acrylic on canvas

An abstract painting with swirling colors including green, yellow, blue, black, and brown on a canvas.
Abstract painting with shades of blue, pink, purple, and green, featuring textured brushstrokes.

Diver and the Untitled
2024
11 x 14”
Acrylic on paper

That Person is still Here
2024
11 x 14”
Acrylic on paper

A spherical glass sphere with a partially submerged copper-colored sculpture inside, seen through the transparent glass, with a reflection of the sculpture above the waterline.

Echo Chamber
2023-2025
6 x 6.5 x 6”
Clay, Acrylic paint, Reclaimed light bulb, Resin

Abstract sculpture of a human head with colorful, textured paint strokes in shades of pink, black, blue, green, and white.
Abstract sculpture resembling a person's bust with colorful, swirling paint strokes, featuring a blue streak running down the center.
Close-up of a textured, colorful, abstract sculpture resembling a human face with a variety of thick, layered paint in shades of pink, blue, black, red, and yellow.
An abstract painting of people in a lively outdoor scene with yellow and brown tones, depicting a woman dancing in black attire, two seated women in white, and other figures engaging in social activities.

Larch Party
2023
36 x 24”
Acrylic on wood

Larch Party is part of the series Incongruity, which examines the tension between individuality and belonging. The work is informed by a translated line from writer Kōtarō Isaka: “Unique animals are being protected; unique people are being isolated.” This paradox frames the series’ exploration of how difference is both valued and marginalized.

Across the series, figures move through ambiguous landscapes that resist fixed interpretation. A figure may be read as retreating into darkness or moving toward light; animals may exist within a field or an interior space. These perceptual uncertainties foreground how context shapes meaning and invite viewers to question what is seen and assumed.

Incongruity approaches contradiction as a generative condition. Solitude is not presented solely as isolation, but as a space of tension, reflection, and potential clarity.

Larch Party marks a point of convergence within the series. Centered on larch trees—rare deciduous conifers—it introduces multiple figures with distinct gestures and identities, suggesting a subtle shift from separation toward coexistence while maintaining ambiguity.

The series continues below.

Painting of three nude women sitting on a floor, with one woman in the background with red hair, in an abstract art style with bold brushstrokes and red, black, and flesh tones.

Private Room (above)
2023
12 x 3”
Acrylic on wood

Distance Between Us 2 & 1 (below)
2023
12 x 16” each
Acrylic on wood

An abstract painting of four nude figures with blurred features, with one figure in the foreground and trees in the background.
An oil painting of three men in a hot spring. One man is on the right, with glasses and short hair, holding a cell phone to his ear. The other two men are on the left, with one slightly blurred. The background shows a scenic landscape with cloudy sky.
An impressionist painting of a mountain landscape under a cloudy sky, with a winding road in the foreground and green fields in the middle ground.

And the Valley Floor
2022
20 x 16”
Acrylic on wood

An impressionistic painting of a mountain landscape with green hills, a pink flower, and a cloudy sky.

At the Base of the Mountain
2022
20 x 20”
Acrylic on wood

Abstract painting of a room and outdoor landscape, with minimal furniture and a window showing trees and sky.

Wolves in the Field
2022
28 x 16” (two boards)
Acrylic on wood