Some artworks continue to speak long after they are created.

I created The Art of Conversation in 2018 as an exploration of language, visual communication, Deaf identity, and the different ways we understand one another.

The installation consists of 48 individual panels, each measuring 18 × 18 inches. Together, they create a larger visual conversation through English language, ASL handshapes, color, movement, and space.

From the Archive

I recently returned to a short video I made in 2018 while creating The Art of Conversation. The first part captures the work in progress, followed by my original artist description in American Sign Language.

Watching this footage again reminds me that the process was just as important as the finished artwork.

As a Deaf artist, I experience language visually. Reading and writing, ASL, handshapes, movement, expression, and mood all become part of how I process communication. The Art of Conversation brings those experiences together.

When looking across the panels, you may recognize pieces of English alongside ASL handshapes. But there is no single way you are supposed to read the artwork.

I want viewers to look around, discover their own connections, and interpret what they see from their own perspectives.

That is where the conversation begins.

Eight Years Later

Eight years after I created it, The Art of Conversation is being experienced in a new setting as part of The Space Between Words at UC San Diego Park & Market.

Seeing the work exhibited again in 2026 has given me an opportunity to revisit what conversation means to me today.

Language may take different forms, but conversation is more than words. It can happen through hands, movement, color, expression, art, and the space we share with one another.

The artwork may have been created in 2018, but the conversation continues.