ABOUT
An artist with a passion for artistic creativity, nature’s wisdom, and cultural understanding.
Mekong River in Luang Prabang, Laos / Feb 2020 / photo by Yennie Tse
Hello! I’m LouLou and thank you for being here.
My work is in fiber arts, nature gathering, mark making, photography, and writing. Being an artist allows me to express how I see and what I perceive, and is a way for me to engage with my inner world and the world around me.
If you’re curious about my artistic journey, it’s all here in a series of four blogs, The Story of an Artist:
1: Discovery and Limitation
2: Longing, Separation, and Wholeness
3: Expansion and Exploration
4: Reconciliation and Integration
About Ko-fi
I’m on Ko-fi, an online creator platform that makes it easy for fans to support creatives. It’s where I share early access and exclusive content of my creative process, original stories, and inspiration.
By signing up as a member for only $6/month, you get benefits such as early access to behind-the-scenes, beautiful photos and poetic videos, personal narrative stories, and other musings about twice a month. Or maybe you want to offer a little support because you like what you see or read. I’m humbly grateful for your one-time donation!
Thank you to my current members for supporting my ongoing creative work. It means so much, and I am grateful. Much of the art and writing on this website is because of you!
About Indigo Lion Handmade
I launched my social enterprise, Indigo Lion Handmade, in 2016, a culmination of decades as an artist, traveler, and expatriate drawn to traditionally crafted objects and their stories. I fell in love with Laos and traveled annually to scout and curate a collection of distinctive, ethically sourced handmade textile accessories and home accents until 2021, when the global pandemic made it difficult to sustain my business. In the spring of 2020, I began weaving connections with the people, places, and cultures of Laos by integrating a new expression into my art through fiber art and hand stitching.
A brief bio
I have been a part of Studio PAUSE, a unique and intentional space that makes time for art, stories, and community in Arlington, VA, for the last ten years, and have had two solo shows of my artwork and participated in several of its group shows. In the past year, I have been working closely with Sushmita Mazumdar, the founder of Studio PAUSE, as a project assistant, advisor, and contributor on various grants focused on community book projects, oral stories, and exhibits. I helped her open a new space on Columbia Pike, Arlington’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood, with her vision of making multicultural more visible to everyone by making time for creativity and celebrating community.
Prior to launching my social enterprise, Indigo Lion Handmade, I was the Director of Programs and Operations for Empowered Women International in Washington, DC from 2012-2015. In the mid-2000s, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer as a Community Developer in NGO Capacity Building in Romania and Uzbekistan, and later a Technical Training Consultant for Peace Corps Romania. My assignment in Romania focused on working with a range of partners in cultural and rural heritage preservation. Earlier in my career, I worked for multiple design firms and taught design at the college level.
I received my Master of Science in Organizational Management from the School for International Training in Vermont, Masters Coursework in Lettering Design from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland, my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and studied with calligraphers in New York, Switzerland, and Japan.
I live with my sweet husband in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA, outside of Washington, DC.