About Vanessa Lam

Thanks to my my friend and studio mate Tristesse Seeliger, she created this great 25 minute video about my work and process. I have included her description from her YouTube ...

Video: Artist Interview with Tristesse Seeliger

A lot has happened since March as I'm sure your lives have changed as well. It's been about two months and I'm still figuring out what the new "normal" looks like. Around mid-March I was ...

Art & Life: Finding the New “Normal”

It has been an incredible past few weeks since the opening of my exhibition A Handmade Night at Ian Tan Gallery. My heart was so full seeing friends from my personal life, from my work and my ...

Vancouver Exhibition: A Handmade Night

I am very excited to be able to share with you some new work which pulls from one of my favourite writers Rebecca Solnit. You can see the work in the portfolio section of my website ...

Opening Reception: A Handmade Night

Thank you to the Artsy team and Bombay Sapphire for this incredible video and the opportunity to have my first solo show in New York. See my previous post here my reflections on the ...

Video: Vanessa Lam, 2017 Artisan Series

My first international solo show and my first New York exhibition. It really happened! What can I say about it? It is overwhelming to know where to start. I had a lot of lofty ideas ...

First New York Exhibition

It's finally here! I'm so excited to have my first solo exhibition in New York thanks to the incredible support of Artsy and Bombay Sapphire! Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see my ...

Solo Exhibition: There is Another Sky

This past December I had the incredible opportunity to enjoy Miami Art Week as a finalist in the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series competition. I got to experience summer weather in the middle of ...

Miami Art Week 2017

It’s been a little over two months since I’ve returned from my artist residency at Takt Kunstprojektraum in Berlin and I finally got around to pulling together some of the main highlights ...

Berlin Artist Residency

I'm excited to let you know that I will offering my first workshop in Gibsons, BC at The Kube Studios on Sunday, August 13, 2017 from 12-4pm. Cost is $150. You will get a chance to spend more ...

August Workshop at The Kube Studios

If you missed the Spring Salon, you can come visit me during The Flats Block Party at The Arts Factory from 1-5pm on Saturday, July 15th! There's lots to see in the area so you will have a ...

The Flats Block Party 2017

My studio mates and I will be having our first Spring Salon at The Arts Factory next month! It's coming up fast and it's something that we have all been working hard to put together in addition ...

Spring Salon at The Arts Factory

I'm excited that I will running some new workshops with Opus over the next two months! They are built on a combination of experiments and exercises that I've learned on my own which have helped ...

Expressive Collage & Drawing Workshop

I know I’m not perfect but somehow the rest of the world thinks you need to be. This is where the whole New Years resolutions can be a slippery slope. Some might turn to focusing on ...

A Year in Reflection 2016: Gratitude

The Eastside Culture Crawl has ended but making art for me has gone into overdrive as I try to finish a few more small pieces for my next event in about 2 weeks! It will be for Shiny Fuzzy Muddy, ...

New Art & New Event: Shiny Fuzzy Muddy

Somehow I managed to finish a few large challenging paintings and rearranged my space for the Eastside Culture Crawl. It is interesting to look back on what I accomplished in the past year at the ...

A Year of New Paintings: Eastside Culture Crawl 2016

I had a fun time at the Arts Factory during the Eastside Culture Crawl! What made it great was that I had lots of new studio mates who moved into the building and participated in the Crawl ...

Eastside Culture Crawl 2016: New Artists at the Arts Factory

It's about one year since I've been at my studio at the Arts Factory. I have been a little apprehensive that I decided to forgo doing any art exhibits this year but in the end ...

Hot Talks Eastside Culture Crawl

When I think of learning modern embroidery, I prefer to think of it as drawing with thread. Instead of paint, I like to use thread as another way of mark making. I’ve always have been ...

Learning modern embroidery & thread drawing

Several years ago I stumbled across artist Siobhan Humston's work online and have been following her work ever since. I was fortunate to meet Siobhan recently and she graciously allowed me to ...

Studio Visit with artist Siobhan Humston

Culture Days – Art Studio Tours at the Arts Factory

I'm noticing that I'm looking into my own work to mine for new paintings and collages. In a previous post, I shared the process behind my mini collages on paper. I created four new paintings on paper ...

Mining My Own Work – Paintings & Collages

In August, I took a last minute art field trip with some artist friends to Gibsons, BC. I have always loved the Sunshine Coast for it's scenery and the laid-back island feeling I get as soon as I ...

Art Field Trip – Sunshine Coast

What has been long overdue for this city is an injection of energy with public art! Lots of new murals have gone up this summer for the Vancouver Mural Festival. These murals are really ...

Vancouver Mural Festival Highlights 2016

NEW YORK CITY! It’s been about twelve years since I last visited so was I really excited to have a chance to go back. I was only there for ten days but there was so much more that I couldn’t ...

Art Museums in New York City

Since the beginning of the year, it's been a challenge to get in large blocks of time at the studio as I have had to work longer hours in my day job. So nowadays I've been trying to squeeze in ...

Making Paper Collages – Fast & Mini

I'm starting the new year with a new medium and process - weaving! Over the last few years, I have become more interested in textiles. I've been thinking of ways that I could incorporate more of ...

Weaving with Alternative Materials

This year is my first time participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl instead of visiting other artists. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was better than I had ever hoped! We all completely ...

Eastside Culture Crawl at the Arts Factory

As part of my ongoing journey as a visual artist, last year I came across an interview of illustrator Lisa Congdon thanks to artist Christina Norberg. It was an interview that is a part of the ...

Process of Becoming an Artist

Works on Paper

Scrapyard Chronicles

Chance Encounters

Building Perspective

I am excited to exhibit a new series of work that I have been working on for the past 7 months. The basis for this series was conceived after visit to a local scrapyard. It led me to think about ...

Art Exhibit Opening – Scrapyard Chronicles

I had long admired the work of artist Lisa Ochowycz and got a glimpse of her process at an Opus artist demo a couple of years ago. I was intrigued both for her style of painting and how she prepared ...

Learning Abstract Painting

I am so excited about being in issue #24 of Uppercase Magazine that I had to write a post about it! I know I wrote about Uppercase in March and September of 2013 but it goes to show you how ...

Uppercase Magazine – Scavenger Hunt

In September I went to an altered book workshop led by artist Rachael Ashe at Hot Art Wet City. I've always been fascinated with all things related to text so using books for art intrigued me. In ...

Altered Book Art Ideas & Assemblage

Armed with a new map, I continued my Saturday Eastside Culture Crawl tour into Sunday afternoon. My first stop was paper artist Rachael Ashe. She had transformed her home into a paper art haven ...

Eastside Culture Crawl Highlights – Day 2

The Eastside Culture Crawl has been a regular event for me over the past several years. However this year I decided to make a concerted effort to get to know more artists and their processes. I ...

Eastside Culture Crawl Highlights 2014 – Day 1

In August, I finally registered to go to a Creative Mornings talk but found out all the tickets were sold out. I put myself on the wait list and to my surprise I was drawn from the wait list to ...

Getting Creative Advice on Failure: Make it Mighty Ugly

Screenprinting on Clay Now that I regularly paint, I am suddenly interested in trying many other things. I had never done much around ceramics but was interested in seeing if I could somehow ...

Art Experiment Ideas: Playing with Drawing and Clay

I am excited to be a part of this group show at Emily Carr. Not only do I get to see some of my Emily Carr classmates again but it will all be mixed media work. I'm just finishing off my altered ...

Art Show Opening – MIXX at Emily Carr

I've always been interested in the use of text and poetry as part of my art process. Having read Letters to a Young Poet by poet Rainer Maria Rilke, I decided to start a series of paintings based ...

Art Process – Poetry and scrapmetal

Working alongside artist Jeanne Krabbendam to curate the Breaking Ground exhibit at the Britannia Mine Museum helped inform me as an artist. It not only gave me a greater appreciation of the effort ...

Curating an Art Show Part 2 – Breaking Ground

This new series of artwork explores the chance beauty of everyday materials and textural elements within our urban environment. Come to the opening reception to check out my new paintings and enjoy ...

Art Show Opening – Chance Encounters

Here's an exhibit in which I'm involved with from the other side as an assistant curator. Towards the end of last year, I started meeting with another professional artist, Jeanne Krabbendam, to ...

Curating an Art Show Part 1: Breaking Ground

I've always thought about making a painting inspired by music and the theme for this upcoming exhibit gave me the opportunity to do just that. Music plays a key part in my art process as it not only ...

Art Show Opening – Good Vibrations: Music & Dance in Art

Discovery Exhibition: Air Seymour Art Gallery Art Show Opening Reception and Awards Presentation: Sunday, January 12, 2014 2-4 pm Art Exhibit: January 8 – February 1, 2014 4360 ...

Art Show Opening – Discovery: Air

I'm excited that 2 of my paintings, which are pictured below, were chosen to be in the Art Rental Program at Cityscape Community Art Space in North Vancouver. You will have a chance to rent out my ...

Art Show Opening- Art Rental Collection

Vivian Maier - Street Photographer Photographs are integral pieces of my work but they are also part of the milieu of ideas that I gather for new paintings. I thought I would share two of the ...

Photography Inspiration

I started this painting last fall but didn't get a chance to get back to it until this October. Below are photos of how the painting developed over several stages. I took inspiration from Derek ...

New Painting – Riding the Storm

Come to the opening reception of Urban Landscape at The Cultch on December 18, 2013 from 6-8pm. It will be a group art show with artists John Russell, Sharon Petty, Valerie Arntzen and myself. ...

Art Show Opening – Urban Landscape

I was in Seattle at the end of June when this book caught my eye at the University Bookstore. As soon as I opened the book, Paperwork, and saw the art of Peter Clark, I knew I had to take the ...

More Collage Ideas with Paperwork

I picked up the latest issue of Uppercase Magazine with the intention of taking it to read while I was on vacation this summer. But it never did make it on the trip because I couldn’t ...

Collage Inspiration

For this art show, I decided to take the opportunity to make all new paintings and create my first series. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough work to show but when it came time to load ...

Art Show Update – Building Perspective

I am very excited to have my very first solo art show called Building Perspective, inspired by photographs of Arnt Arntzen’s workshop taken last fall. The piece in the poster is a ...

Art Show – Building Perspective

Art Process – Reasons to Make Art

The Machine Shop building at the Britannia Mine Museum was the venue for the Above and Below and the Surface exhibit. It was wonderful to have such a great turnout as we did on opening ...

Art Show Update – Above and Below the Surface

Come join me for the Above and Below the Surface art show opening on April 5th. Admission is free for the opening reception. My painting Lit by Poets, which is pictured above, will be on display ...

Art Show – Above and Below the Surface

In this new painting, I was particularly drawn to the area taken in the photograph which is the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Substation in North Vancouver. I had driven by this area many ...

New Painting – A Passing Glimpse

Painting Inspiration – Uppercase Magazine

For this piece, I was inspired by the process of writing letters and wanted to also celebrate the elegance of text. When you start to write, your mind delves out a flow of ideas that take shape as ...

New Painting – Solace in Writing

The gallery was teeming with people on the opening reception night. There was a great mix of artists and interpretations of this year’s theme Earth. I had a brief chat and critique with the judge ...

Art Show Update: Discovery Earth Exhibit

I finally completed the painting pictured below last month. It was in progress when I showed it at the Drift in September. I asked viewers to think of someone in their life and to write a sentence or ...

New Painting – Tribute

I had the pleasure of meeting Arnt Arntzen at his open studio during the Eastside Culture Crawl in November. For the past few years, I had popped in to admire his amazing “functional sculptures” ...

Art Process – New Painting Inspiration

The opening night of the Anonymous Art Show was much more popular than I anticipated. As I lined up outside, I peered through the window to see the packed crowd of people already milling about and ...

Anonymous Art Show Update

My painting titled Home Stretch, which is pictured on the bottom left corner of the poster, will be part of a group art show and grand opening of the Powell Street Craft Brewery on December 15, ...

Art Show – Powell Street Craft Brewery

This is an exciting time for me as one of my paintings was selected to be in the Seymour Art Gallery’s Discovery: Earth exhibition for emerging artists! My painting "A Different Air ...

Art Show – Discovery: Earth

This past weekend was my first time ever showing my paintings and also showing with the Drift. Through the whole weekend, it was heartwarming to see so many of my friends and my family come out to ...

My First Art Show