bye 2023, hi 2024

back to newsletter business

Just yesterday, it was the last day (Lantern Festival) of Lunar New Year, so this isn’t late, right…?

🌱❀ 2023 art-life recap ❀🌱

• Book Stuff: I turned in my files for NOODLE & BAO!!!! It’s is officially out on Oct 15!!! It feels like a fever dream. You can pre-order it here. Wow. There’s lots more to come, so I’ll stop here.

• Collaborations: I got to do some really fun art collaborations this year! A few highlights of my very favorites—

  • Working with my wifey on Holu x Rubato merch! We are all sold out of this season’s hats/shirts/etc!

  • Creating the key art for The Fortune Teller, produced by CHUANG Stage, a local women and queer-led Asian American theatre company.

• Exhibitions: It was so fun being part of the Pao Arts Center’s Call and Response exhibit & zine library. I also currently have two pieces up (for sale and for viewing) at Blue Triangle Gallery!

  

  Wah Lum kids are showing you which ones are mine hahahahaha.

• Public Art: We finally restored the Harrison Ave mural. Viv and I also added an update to our window mural on Chinese Progressive Association!

• Book/Zine/Art Fairs:

  • I got to enjoy vending at a bunch of fun local events this year — Boston Kid’s Comics Fest, Boston Comics in Color Festival, Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, Philly Zine Fest (the one non-Boston event). Many of the Boston area comics stuff, which is all free to attend, is organized by hard-working volunteers in the Boston Comics Arts Foundation. You can support them here.

  • Some highlights: being in AWE of my fellow exhibitors, live-drawing at the MICE Cartoonarium, while being heckled by Vivian for the whole hour; getting my humble zines in two libraries, Harvard Radcliffe Schlesinger Library and Somerville Public Library; and being interviewed on a podcast about MICE (you’re not gonna get a link to that because I don’t like hearing my own voice)!

    

    L: at the MICE Cartoonarium, inking Noodle & Bao; R: tabling with Vivian at Philly Zine Fest!

• Art Teaching (?!?): I went back into the classroom to teach art this school year in Chinatown. Some of you might wonder how I balance this with presumably making art “full-time.” Basically, I am doing a job share with another art teacher, so we split teaching responsibilities. I work on my book on the weekends and on Mondays and Tuesdays (and some Wednesdays) and after school. Yes, it is very exhausting.

  All that said, I love being back in the classroom! How could you not love getting sweet notes like this??

  

  Thank you SO very much to those of you who have sent our kids watercolor paints, paper, markers, pencils, and more. I cannot thank you enough. If you’d like to send us more art supplies, we keep a running wishlist here.

  On that note, our JQES art student work will be the Spring exhibit at the Pao Arts Center! Come through to Inspired By… (Opening Date: April 6) to see all their hard work during the fall semester.

a few 🍓 to look forward to

• This upcoming year, I’ll be working on Book 2 (a picture book!) and Book 3 (another middle grade graphic novel). Both books will be about fighting and believing in our own humanity. 🌱

• We’re working on a People’s Map of Chinatown. I also have a few other exciting collaborations in the works, so stay tuned for news about those!

• More Holu x Rubato merch will be dropping soon. 🐱

• I’m supporting the Cartoonist Coop’s E-Sims for Gaza campaign as a cartoonist. Keep Gaza connected to the rest of the world.

  

a few things i’m enjoying & want *you* to enjoy

• I drew so much this past year that I hurt my wrist. :( My brush with tendonitis this fall led me to cartoonist Kriota Willberg’s Draw Stronger. I’d really recommend this book to for anyone who draws for a living.

• I’ve really enjoyed the podcast Life Kit lately — it’s a series of short 20 episodes about helpful things ranging from: “what to do with your childhood stuff” to “how to mind your own business.” They also end each episode with a handy verbal bullet point summary for those of us who are multi-tasking and didn’t listen attentively.

• Dandy Blend! Our new obsession in our household is drinking copious amounts of Dandy Blend with oatmilk. It has the same warm and comforting feeling as drinking milk tea or a latte, but without any of the diarrhea and caffeine-induced-sleepiness that is normal for me. We’ve turned our living room into a little cat café, and we just sit and pet our cats and drink our fake milk tea/coffee.

• Here’s a song to listen to while you drink your (non-dairy) coffee (substitute) in your house:

ok thanks byeeeeeeee