With an educational background in Fashion Design (2009 - 2012) and Creative Writing (2016 - 2018), I’ve worked as a fashion writer, fashion buyer, marketing executive, creative writing teacher, created my own collection of hand-crafted bags…

And in all my creative wanderings, I never once considered being an artist who painted on canvas.The thought of being a painter and choosing it as my career, never crossed my mind.

It wasn’t until I went back to school (at 26 years old) did painting become an  ardent obsession.

It all began as an accompaniment to the poems I was writing in University. I was sharing these poems on my Instagram and wanted to add another dimension to the narrative that would make my feed more aesthetically pleasing. I didn’t think much of it as that was my form of self-therapy. I was going through a lot and had to process my internal and external turmoils.

In the sharing of my illustrations, I started receiving recognition for it. Magazines started reaching out to me for interviews and I received invitations to group exhibitions. The world saw me as an artist-painter before I saw it in myself. I embraced this newfound-purpose and ran with it.

Now, here I am, all these years later, still creating the narratives of my soul’s wanderings.

In addition to being a painter, I have embraced ceramics into my practice. The magical transformation of mud to tangible dreams has always fascinated me. And when life presented the opportunity to explore this medium in 2023, I took it and fell deeply in love with the medium.

As a child, growing up in a volatile household undergoing the 1997 Asian financial crisis, I grew to harbor a great deal of painful experiences.

My family lost everything in that season of life and we had to start selling kuih  (Malaysian desserts) in the morning and night street markets. I wasn’t able to go to school and had no friends, as I would be working from morning till night to help my family survive.

And as life continued, more complications arose. Riddled with health scares and toxic relationships (family, friends, lovers), I began to morbidly question everything (this was reflected in poems I wrote in the earlier part of my craft).

It wasn’t until I began painting that I found a way to nurse these wounds. Hence the name “Anntidote”. Art became my healer — my antidote to the poison certain life experiences have bitten into me.