My work grows from a love of rice—as food, nourishment, and cultural connection—and a deep appreciation for the labor behind it. I will be vending my upcycled rice bag fashion pieces, transforming discarded rice bags into bold statement items such as crossbody bags, flat caps, and more recently skirts and crop tops. These lightweight yet extremely durable pieces were recently featured on my friend and influencer @dyannaluna in The New York Times Seafood City article.
I began exploring rice bags during 2019–2020, when wildfire smoke, uncertainty, and the pandemic made an “apocalypse-ready” mindset feel very real. What started as boredom during lockdown became a playful but practical idea: creating bags that could survive anything. Three Ladies Jasmine rice is a favorite material of mine, drawn to its vibrant green-and-red color palette, which connects directly to my ongoing watermelon oil painting series.
Alongside my upcycled fashion, I will also be vending paintings of rice paddies—works I began during my art school years in 2014 and am now revisiting across different mediums. Together, these works explore themes of labor, migration, cultural memory, and sustainability, honoring the resilience of field workers while transforming everyday materials tied to food and survival into wearable and visual narratives.
Created in 2014, Rice Patty series made with watercolor and india ink celebrates the beautiful cascading landscape that grows the nourishing grain. Watercolor is the perfect medium to capture the symphonic colors of the sky reflected on the water, which allows the rice to grow. The darkness found in India ink offers the eye a place of rest.
