My first self-made stretcher bars! (and first time to do woodworks since my DT lesson back in secondary school!)

I always paint on stretched canvas but it’s difficult (and stupid) to bring them from Hong Kong to Finland by plane. So I brought a canvas roll instead. But it felt a bit different to paint on unstretched “soft canvas piece”. Thanks to Clint, another resident artist at Hub Feenix. He suggested me doing the stretcher bars here, and gave me a step-by-step workshop: cutting the bars into desired lengths, sanding the edges, combining them into a frame with drill, and stretching the canvas over the frame.
Now I can paint on a stretched canvas!

Woodwork can be fun, when having the right teacher and tools!

What a lovely sharing session with other resident artists at Hub Feenix! I talked about my art journey starting 4 years ago, what I have been through, my signature “My Wonderland” series, and the art piece I am working on now — inspired by the nature here and Finnish nature-loving lifestyle.

The resident artists at Hub Feenix come from different countries. Their expertise ranges from painting, animation, comics, improvised music, digital art to film making! I have learned a lot from them. Hub Feenix is a centre of creativity and well-being. Many of its staff and volunteers are also artists. Thanks for listening to my sharing and your comments and encouragement!

Photo by fellow resident artist Lisa Labracio

What a lovely sharing session with other resident artists at Hub Feenix! I talked about my art journey starting 4 years ago, what I have been through, my signature “My Wonderland” series, and the art piece I am working on now — inspired by the nature here and Finnish nature-loving lifestyle.

The resident artists at Hub Feenix come from different countries. Their expertise ranges from painting, animation, comics, improvised music, digital art to film making! I have learned a lot from them. Hub Feenix is a centre of creativity and well-being. Many of its staff and volunteers are also artists. Thanks for listening to my sharing and your comments and encouragement!

It’s two days since I left Hub Feenix.
I already miss it. Several debuts to me during the past month! My first time to do artist residency, to make art while travelling, to make canvas stretchers by myself, to do monotype printing, to do traditional Finnish sauna, to see midnight sun, to have vegetarian diet for whole month, and to have overseas collector for my art! So touched to know my art speaks to someone on the other side of the earth.

At Hub Feenix, artists are free to decide how to use the time. I didn’t make any presumptions but opened up myself. End up I completed one painting and started the 2nd piece. It’s a new series inspired not only by the nature but also my reflections on Finnish life style and human activities.

Thanks to the amazing staff of Hub Feenix who made this residency successful and fruitful! Also thanks to my fellow resident artists for sharing this wonderful memory with me.

during my time at the residency, I did some dyeing with local mushrooms like cortinarius and sarcodon squamosus. it was really fun to walk around in the forest surrounding the area during the end of mushroom season with my basket and picking the best looking mushrooms! i ended up with four skeins of lettlopi icelandic yarn.
while at hub feenix, i worked on some small handsewn patchwork quilts and sketched out some new ideas for the next ones! apart from the artistic work done there, i had a great time going to the sauna each week, playing games with all the volunteers, eating piparkakku, talking to the sheep and building a snow woman!!

The winter landscape in Meltola has left an impression on my subconscious mind. December’s darkness and elongated blue hours created a space for me that fostered deep-set introspection. These conditions, though severe, were both formative as well as restorative, offering me the frame of mind for reflection and course correction. The quietude of the snow, absorbing sound cloaked the earth in a silence I’ve never beheld before, it made me reverent. My time at the Hub Feenix led me to a place of resolve both personally and professionally, encouraging me to embrace a new path forward as both a human being and as well as a creative. Surrounded by a community filled with compassion and warmth, I found not only a home away from home but also a space for internal alignment.