Definitely one of my trashier paintings featuring Canada’s beloved trash panda. This one’s rummaging the kitchen at night. I stuck to dark green tones to get that nocturnal feel. I originally did a small version of this that sold fast, then decided to take the idea further and do a monster version. The last photo is of it in my old studio in Toronto (original trash panda city) where it was completed. I have since relocated to hamilton my hometown and taken the fella with me. In case anyone wants to find it. Im still looking for that buyer who catches raccooons and roasts them up for dinner, which is a wild story i came across showing this painting to people. Or maybe a family who wanted to adopt a raccoon but was worried about the clean up. #raccoon #trashpanda #surrealart

Mouse In Da House acrylic on canvas 4 x 4 feet 2020 I painted this during the pandemic, 2020 is also the year of the rat in the Chinese zodiac to which I also am. A 20 dollar bill points to this significance. During that time most people were on lock down hence the fully stocked pantry in the painting. Except I was far from being hunkered down as I was working as a visiting, homecare nurse throughout the pandemic and well into my first pregnancy. I was thriving! They needed me to keep patients out of the hospital and they paid me well, there was no traffic on the streets so I could see my 10 clients and get home early to paint, box and ship art. I made my biggest international art sales during the pandemic too because everyone was bored at home shopping online and looking at blank walls. I feel guilty talking about it because I realize the pandemic was terrible for most, but for me, I just had the right skill set at the right time and a stock pile of art all reay to go. It was a long time coming and I finally got lucky 🍀 For me, this painting is a symbol of resilience and resourcefulness. I’m most proud about the cloud and the cat in the cupboard and the tiny shadow mice. I was trying to get pregnant even before the pandemic, and then we hit some roadblocks when the fertility clinics paused during the lockdown, then there was also a miscarriage. It wasnt until towards the end of lockdowns just as mass vaccines were available to the general public that I finally got pregnant for real. I remember working masked up in the summer heat in my last trimester and giving birth within 24 hours of my last shift that year. I got so lucky because I ended up with two babies one after the other, I was closing in on 40 so I wasnt sure if it would happen for me. And I look back on this painting now and I see the nest of baby mice in the cupboard but also my two favorite shadow mice running about in the painting. In times of turmoil I paint, and somehow the answers unfold. #inspirational #motivation #pandemic #art

I got 5 paintings in this year, here’s how it’s going! Running now to April 21.

What has been a seminal experience?

So many, but I’ll tell one at a time. Just after high school I went backpacking through Spain for 2 weeks. I was 18 when I ventured into the Salvador Dali Museum and Theatre in Figueres, Spain. I didn’t want to leave and remember picking up an itch to paint that day. If you’ve never been, it’s a wonderland of grotesque beauty. #lisangart #artdiary #artthoughts

Imagination and a strong desire to be one. Confidence, a good work ethic, mastery of a medium, financial security and a support system of mentors and artistic peers helps, and those are fairly straight forward to obtain. Imagination and desire, a passion, that secret element of “Je ne sais quois” though, I’m not sure if that’s inborn, or a bi-product of having to test oneself creatively to overcome an obstacle. Do artists have to suffer heartbreak to make good art? I do think they have to live a little and step out of their comfort zones, get a richer, maybe a more authentic experience to draw from. You can copy a Rembrandt all damn day but it doesn’t make you a good artist, it just makes you a good copy cat. You can copy all your favourite artists and combine all your favourite bits together, but if there’s no true element of yourself in it, it won’t be very original. Maybe at its best, art is authentic human thought and connection. Let me know if you have any answers.

What is my background?

I’m a second generation, Chinese Canadian. My Cantonese is a little choppy but I am fluent in English, Chinglish and painting. I’m a rat in the Chinese zodiac and my mom is a snake. We have a very charged relationship because snakes eat rats for dinner! My first words were in Cantonese but I started to lose it when I was enrolled in English school. There’s always been a communication barrier between my mother and I, a cultural clash, a language wall, a deep frustration of a mix of bad hearing over angry yelling, I’m not sure what it was. She did teach me how to read and write and draw my first hand turkeys. In my teenage years I started communicating with her through hand written notes, little doodles and things, it was just an easier way, a calmer way to get our ideas across. When I moved out, I’d send her snail mail. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to communicating through symbols, patterns and colours.

Sort of went on a tangent there. I never know how to answer that question because I don’t just make art about the Chinese Canadian experience explicitly, but I hope that helps to explain how my background informs my work.

It all starts with an idea that excites, which can come from anywhere. Next is gathering reference material. This usually involves researching various things and collecting and taking pictures. Next, I work on some sketches, usually a combination of being done by hand and some of it done on the computer using Photoshop to tweak patterns, or the shape of things, or imagining what colours it might look good in. Next is transferring the final drawing onto the canvas and then I paint! I mix all my own colours as it allows for more options 🌈

Why do you do what you do?

I make art to breathe. If I don’t take a little time each day to paint a bit I get grumpy. Some say it’s an outlet, or a form of meditation, I would call it a necessity. I’ve been making art since I could hold a crayon. It’s the only place where I feel like I can really explore being myself, tackling the most interesting thought that comes to me. I don’t feel like I have to conform to anyone or anything, I can paint whatever I feel like, to me, that is freedom. I had a rather brief childhood that was quickly interrupted with a firm regiment of endless piles of math homework, piano practice, swimming laps and copying out the dictionary, so when that was all done and over with for the day, all I wanted to do was art. Art was the one thing that was never enforced in my childhood and for some reason, maybe out of unconscious rebellion, I went really crazy with it. In short, I did not end up an eye doctor like my parents had hoped, but ended up a painter with bad eyesight 😔🤓 Bless every beautiful eye doctor in this would. How has your childhood/upbringing made you an artist or not one? Why do you make art?

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Lisa Ng (last name pronounced “ing”) and I’m a surrealist painter who enjoys animals, colours and patterns, among many things. Being on the art path has lead me also to a host of other things. I’m a registered nurse, a wife and a mom of two toddlers, but don’t let that extensive resume fool you, I’ve been good at art since I could hold a crayon 🖍️ #lisangart #artbio #artstuff