As a lung cancer doctor and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded researcher, I have witnessed the healing powers of modern medicine. As a ceramic artist, I have witnessed the same for art. As censorship and oppression have entered science in the US, clay has become my freedom. Freedom to create unencumbered. Freedom to speak unafraid (actually, I’m doing this scared). And freedom to resist. Through handbuilt resistance art made in the San Francisco Bay Area, I write truths into stone(ware) so they cannot be erased. As a Chinese immigrant from Malaysia, I use my art and relative privilege to support immigrant rights, inclusion, and liberty and justice for all, not some. My “Hands to Table” fruit flutter bowls honor migrant farm workers. My resistance frames and spiral mugs share messages of strength and purpose. Through my “Uncensored” flutter bowl series, I handwrite words that are currently banned in federal grants in gold luster to remind us all of their value. I am currently working on a new series of supersized resistance frames documenting Supreme Court dissents to the dismantling of what I thought were unalienable rights. Dissents to fascism are scathing, yet beautiful.
