ART PORTFOLIO
This collection gathers my explorations in realism, surrealism, and still life. Each canvas is both reflection and repair—an attempt to make sense of the everyday through color, texture, and balance.
A Head Too Heavy
Acrylic on Canvas
19.7 x 15.7 in
A Head Too Heavy marked a turning point for me. Growing from my own perfectionism and mental overload, this work uses distortion—from the subject’s enlarged head and textured pants to the tilted walls—to reveal the pressure of self-imposed expectations. The warped human form mirrors how thoughts accumulate until they collapse under their own weight. The seated figure on distorted stairs leading to an unseen path symbolizes uncertainty and the relief of letting go of control.
Tang of Home
Colored Pencil on Paper
11.8 X 16.5 in
A still life capturing my family’s shared moments through personal objects — my mother’s teapot, my father’s Yamazaki bottles from evenings of shared lessons, my brother’s tea-brewing conversations about flavor, and the mooncakes we share each Chinese New Year — reveal how simple acts of sharing food and drink create belonging and intimacy.
Shrinked
Graphite and Colored Pencil on Paper
16.4 x 11.6 in
In Shrinked, the mind becomes an aquarium of pressure. Inspired by the psychological concept of an imaginary audience, this piece visualizes constant self-awareness. The oversized lionfish, an invasive species, embodies intrusive thoughts, while the small human figure places the viewer into the overwhelming sense of being observed.
Seeing this neglect firsthand, I confronted how our heritage sites, like Borobudur, were looted, carelessly restored with damaging materials like cement, and later commercialized.
Which led me to ask myself, would erosion have been more honest than careless restoration?
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Using acrylic mixed with baking soda to create a grainy, eroded surface, the fragmented wall reconstructs Borobudur’s overlooked history.
The displaced lantern-like golden fragments that float upward symbolize looted statues and artifacts transformed into memory.
Ultimately, my mixed media piece reflects on how restoring cultural heritage is not only about repairing stone but also about remembering what has already been lost.
Rievocazione: Cultural Orphans
Photograph digitally altered with Procreate, acrylic, and baking soda on canvas paper
50.8 x 68.9 in
Does preserving heritage mean fixing what is broken, or learning to live with its remembrance? My interest began during an art conservation program in Gravina in Puglia, where I learned that true restoration is preserving the hidden structures rather than repainting damage to ensure longevity. Returning to Indonesia, I noticed the community’s indifference toward our heritage.
Duratrans print in lightbox (Part of installation)
Rievocazione: Masked Artifact
Watercolor on acrylic-baking soda layered on canvas, finished with acrylic paint, duratrans print in lightbox
35.4 x 23.6 in
My recent artwork, Masked Artifact, explores how the process of restoration can sometimes erase rather than preserve history. The work features a series of photographs showing a mask before, during, and after restoration, revealing how the final result no longer resembles the original. Presented on a neon box reminiscent of an X-ray, the piece exposes what is lost beneath the surface—questioning authenticity, memory, and the human urge to “fix” what time has already defined.
Preservation Study
Watercolor on Canvas with Hand-Sculpted Painted Clay, Dried Beans, Acrylic Finish
31.5 x 31.5 in
This mixed-media piece materializes the idea of how a single food (beans) can sustain generations. A grid of heirloom and lima beans symbolizes farmlands and families that relied on them during times of scarcity. Around the edges, beans transformed into colorful clay mutations, contrasting organic roots with humanity’s shift toward engineered efficiency to show how progress risks losing authenticity.
Composition sketches done with pen and colored pencils
Sketchbook Page
Watercolor, Graphite and Colored Pencil
Contains sketches of designs and interiors I came across during my travels.
The Questionist in Blue
Acrylic on Canvas
23.6 x 23.6 in
Inspired by Picasso’s Blue Period, this piece imitates his textured, monochromatic style to convey introspection and melancholy. The blue caterpillar reflects the search for identity and connection, echoing Picasso’s emotional depth. Through this, I reinterpret solitude as self-understanding.
Interwoven Reverie
Colored Pencil and Hard Pastel on Paper
15.8 x 12.6 in
Interwoven Reverie illustrates growth sustained by connection. Branches formed from intertwined hands symbolize the network of friends and family who ground me: those who observe, support, listen, and challenge. I’ve learned that what appears floral is, in truth, human, a system of care that keeps everything standing.
Floral Commands
Graphite and Colored Pencil on Paper
16.5 x 11.8 in
Floral Command explores how listening and the choice to act or ignore shapes growth. The green and red hues signal decision and consequence: to move or to stop, to respond or retreat. The flowers symbolize what follows each choice, thriving or stilled based on the input we allow to take root.
Her Room
White Charcoal on Brown Paper
25.6 X 19.7 in
This observational still life expresses my mourning for
my grandmother and the hoarding habits I unconsciously
share with her. Objects left in her locked room: a frozen
calendar, an outdated phone, a jar of coins, Bible, and her
half-covered rocking chair, became symbols of memory,
distance, and mental instability. Redrawing these objects
was my way of confronting grief and inheritance.
Inheritance
White Charcoal on Black Paper
21.5 x 15.6 in
The poignant perspective explores inheritance as both memory and weight, tracing how personal history lingers across generations. Inheritance reftects my personal observation of how emotional tension such as anger, stress, and sensitivity, may link to the development of cancer. Displaying the quiet persistence of cancer in my family, a disease passed down like a secret.
Beyond the Teacup
Acrylic on Canvas Board
20 x 16 in
The teacup atop the subject’s head acts as a coping mechanism, shielding against unwanted comments while letting them seep through its cracks. Flowers sprouting from those cracks signify growth through openness, while the decaying ears represent avoidance. The frenetic, blurred surroundings convey her effort to shut out the chaos of the world, symbolizing the overwhelming noise she struggles to silence. The work also reflects my own stubbornness, realizing that growth begins only after accepting feedback and criticism.
A River of Tears
Acrylic on Canvas
19.7 x 15.7 in
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, A River of Tears reimagines Alice’s journey into uncertainty. The journey is both literal and emotional, a fragile vessel moving toward a looming waterfall. The paper boat, too delicate to last, becomes a symbol of how we move through uncertainty knowing the fall is part of the path.
Sweet Lies
Acrylic on Canvas
19.7 x 15.7 in
Exploring the idea of white lies, this piece turns strawberries, symbols of sweetness, pale and artificial, revealing how harmless lies will eventually erode honesty. Layered acrylics soften and conceal the surface, questioning whether any lie, however gentle, can remain without consequence.
