a/r/tography

I interpret a/r/tography as a practice-based research methodology that engages with the blended process of art making and creative writing with, and as, an autoethnographic and constructivist approach to explore, evoke, and unearth memories and stories inhabited within experiential narratives.

Currently, my approach to the a/r/tography projects, Field Notes and Field Matrix, is of a reflexive process that is inspired by the theoretical frameworks of phenomenology and hermeneutics to describe, and subsequently examine, the meanings of lived and endured experiences surrounding military education and training.

Channeling my identity as an artist, researcher, and teacher (military educational specialist), I have, and will further, involve art making modalities of printmaking, photo collage, and painting that is woven with poetry.

Project Title:
Field Notes

Project Mediums:
Linocut Printmaking and Poetry

Progress:
Sketches created and awaiting finalization; print works pending; poems written.

Goals:
Conference presentations (2026), publication submission (2026), exhibition (2026-2027)

  • The Mega

    the Mega morning after party
    under his watchful eye
    hosted by
    the unwavering zombie operators
    of the Alpha Division

  • School of Fish

    urgently
    they say
    for you shall play
    the roulette of sanctioned suffering
    because
    no pain, no fun

  • PT

    dear Corporate Corporals
    your laptop bags
    and combat boots
    need not find glory
    at our morning PT

  • Underground

    for a time
    there was an otherworldly love
    conceived by the currency of cohesion
    halving hearts and
    soldering comrades
    tragically entrenched
    in a plane of cordial companionship

  • Field Production

    battle procedures rehearsed
    kit calibrated
    decked out in full fighting order
    like some incubated rendition
    of a D-Day action film
    written for soldiers

  • Bootstrap

    stand on guard for thee
    stand on guard for thee
    stand on guard for thee
    stand on guard for thee

  • Camo

    when Fighting Spirit
    professed by Profession of Arms
    is outwritten
    by Warrior Spirit
    authored by Divine Intervention

In Motion.

  • Currently, this project’s digital sketches are drafted.

  • The process of linocut printing will proceed after sketches are finalized, linocut plates are created, and printmaking ink infused with rifle carbon is completed.

In Print.

  • Carbon collected from C7 and C8 rifles will be infused into the printmaking ink used for the linocut prints.

    This element of ink making is an ode to project’s military context and the stories and memories that surround the rite of passage painfully earned by military members joining the Canadian Armed Forces.

  • The process of ink making will take place after the project’s sketches are finalized and when the linocut plates are created. This will ensure that the correct amount of carbon is collected to help produce the ink for printmaking.

a/r/tography

Over the years, I have come to learn that my best creative work happens when my mind, body, and spirit are aligned. Although it is difficult to describe how this alignment of my being formally takes shape, I do know that feeling relaxed, nurtured, and safe contributes to it.

Currently, it is mid-June, and I am behind on my intended schedule to finish this e-portfolio to supplement my doctoral proposal applications. Particularly, I am feeling a sense of urgency to complete this body of a/r/tography concept work before I depart for my upcoming military training course that starts next week and ends late August. Is it simply this time crunch that is affecting my alignment, or is it something more?

Surely, my mind is not relaxed due to all the sensations from looming graduate school timelines and work tasks that require completion before I depart for training. On the other hand, my body is somewhat nurtured by all the fitness and nutrition that I have indulged in as part of my work training preparations. My spirit, however, is speaking a different story.

A quiet realization for every soldier is the risk that is involved with every deployment, training course, and for many, every operational work task. The moment we put on our uniforms to go to work, we do not belong to ourselves anymore, but rather, we belong to our country. Service before self is the name of the game, and I reflect on a sentiment shared by my first Royal Canadian Air Force superior, Sergeant Harker, is that sometimes the price of doing business in our industry involves the ultimate sacrifice.

At this moment, my mind-body-spirit is too disjointed to compose some of the a/r/tography components shared in this e-portfolio, but I hope that the universe will be gracious enough to let me complete this upon my safe return from my training course.

Project Title:
Field Matrix

Project Mediums:
Photo Collage Paintings

Progress:
Sketches created and awaiting finalization; paintings pending; poems pending.

Goals:
Conference presentations (2026), publication submission (2026), exhibition (2026-2027)

  • Obstacle Course 1

  • Obstacle Course 2

  • Airfield 1

  • Airfield 2

  • Base Teepee 1

  • Base Teepee 2

Book Review

Medhurst, J. (2022). Sub Culture: The many lives of the submarine. Reaktion Books.

Progress: manuscript writing in progress
Goals: book review publication submission (2026)

(Summary of current progress with the book review manuscript)

In Sub culture: The many lives of the submarine, Medhurst introduces the evolution of submarine culture by portraying its contribution to global science and engineering progressiveness, illustrating submarine technology as a revolutionary stealth military weapon during the World Wars, and defining the political strength in fighting force for nation-states that possess submarines. The book further draws on the representation of submarines in North American popular culture, the arts, and literature, and details how these depictions interplay with societal perceptions of gender, as well as its ongoing influences on international political agendas.

Medhurst uniquely weaves submarine information, historical facts, and submariner accounts with snippets of fictional narratives found in film and literature. This creative intervention that pulses the book back and forth between history and story is apparent and creates an inviting touch to the book’s overall narration of submarines.

This book review highlights the strengths of Medhurst’s Sub culture: The many lives of the submarine particularly in the areas of utilizing and innovative writing structure and adopting real-life submariner perspectives is an effort that makes the book an accessible and interesting resource to submarine specialists, enthusiasts, as well as the subject matter newcomers.

Book Review

Wakelam, R., Varey, D., & Sica, E. (2020). Educating air forces: Global perspectives on airpower learning. University of Kentucky Press.

Photography

This photographic series was created during my early years studying Fine Arts at York University. These photographs explored the seam that tethers between the physical and metaphysical conditions of our humanness.

The postures in the photographs utilized contortionistic gestures to produce a floating or elevating visual, and was unaided by staging or digital rendering.

Surrendering to the vulnerabilities of injury and public embarrassment were vital to the process of creating these artworks, as submitting myself to this creative journey channelled subconscious behaviours of my body to flow into the realm of consciousness in this artmaking process.

Project Title:
Elevation

Progress:
Completed in 2008; currently revisiting this series as an a/r/tography project

Goals:
Interdisciplinary education-art showcase (2026-2027)

Photography

This photographic series was created during my early years studying Fine Arts at York University. These photographs started off as an impromptu visual study of abstracting the body to technically create motion imagery, which then evolved into a black and white imagery series that further flourished into photographic paintings that emulated features of Chinese calligraphic brush strokes.

As a young adult trying to understand myself (my body, my identity, my role in society), this artwork was an awakening experience that provided a place for me to “house” a lot of my emotions, my senses, and my being.

The process of creating these photographs involved calibrating the camera into self portrait mode at a slow shutter speed whereby I would dance in front of the camera until the photo frame concludes.

Chinese society often exists as a conservative cultural landscape that voids young people of their free expressions. As a person of Chinese descent, this body of artwork granted me a safe place to voice my creative presence.


Trigger Warning: mention of car accident

I hope to extend this photographic series as part of my ongoing creative journey to revisit some of the moments in the past years. In particular, I hope to confront some of the physically and mentally traumatic encounters that took place in 2022.

In 2022, I experienced a devastating car accident while towing my 22 foot trailer home cross-country from Toronto to Vancouver Island. An accident that I was not at fault for. While I survived the total-loss car wreck, I lost most belongings including great deal of my artwork and records of my creative portfolio that were stored in digital hard drives and some - including sculpture work - in actual physical form.

Hence, reviving this project through an a/r/tographic approach will give me an opportunity inquire about this lived experience, and most importantly, to make sense of the life lessons learned through this unfortunate incident.

Project Title:
In Movement

Progress:
Completed in 2008; currently revisiting this series as an a/r/tography project

Goals:
Interdisciplinary education-art showcase (2026-2027)