Mui-Ling Teh

Art | Photography | Poetry | Miniature Origami

Career

I am an artist working in architecture
But my dream is to have a creative future

...

What began as a hobby transitioned into a passion. Throughout her secondary school career, Mui-Ling Teh actively pursued her art: she joined the art club, painted murals, participated in a few juried exhibitions, won a few places in art competitions, and was offered a commission for the summer following her graduation. But like many she was advised against becoming a starving artist, so instead she pursued a degree in architecture.

The start of university was a start of many things. It was Teh's first time to live away from my family; let alone the home where she lived all her life. Incidentally, it was also the first time she lost someone close to her. Early in the school term she was invited to a birthday party. Although she was not fond of parties, and had a lot of work to do; she accepted the invitation for the sake of getting to know her classmates. On the day of the party however she got a phone call from her father asking her to come home because her grandfather, on her mother's side, had just passed away.

Teh felt guilty over spending the last minutes of my grandfather's life getting ready for a party when she should have been getting work done. From that day she swore she would never go to a party during a school term. This led to a few classmates looking down on her as she turned down further party invitations that year - that, on top of another dilemma, made her first year very difficult. It was however a valuable learning experience for Teh as she made wiser decisions the following year.

Into her second year Teh began gaining work experience in architectural offices. she enjoyed these internships, especially when abroad. Over the years however difficulties in school arose again as she began to question whether architecture was right for her. Following a dark period in late 2007 Teh did some soul searching; then in 2008, during an eight month internship, she discovered the online art community Redbubble and re-kindled her desire to follow her true passion. On top of finding a place to exhibit and sell her work online, Teh enjoyed interacting with artists around the world. She also began to pick-up an interest in photography, as well started a series of miniature origami creations.

Following her 2008 internship Teh had a year of school remaining. The first half of her final year took place in Italy; which was followed by a four month internship in London, UK; then finally Teh returned to Canada to finish the last semester of her undergraduate program. After finishing her degree she enrolled in the masters program to pursue a thesis drawing connections between architecture and origami. Teh was to begin her new pursuit at the start of 2010. Knowing her free time would be very limited, she pursued her art actively in the last four months of 2009. During that time Teh also began selling my work on Zazzle; and had her miniature origami published in the Montreal magazine Plaisirs de Vivre/Living with Style, along with actor Rainn Wilson's website Soulpancake. Teh felt she had grown a lot; and that despite all the difficulties she went through, she was very lucky. Teh thought she could never find herself in the dark again, until she began she masters in 2010.
 

Upon the start of her masters Teh ran into a series of back luck. To make it worse, she lost a collection of my miniature origami during one crazy day. A few weeks later a news agency showed interest in putting together a story about her miniature origami, which was initially exciting, but ended up to be a year long nightmare. Various stories were published containing errors, and some of Teh's photos were badly altered, hence not the true representation of my work. Teh was even criticised over claims she never made, and her images were stolen frequently since.

Teh struggled to keep up in school while dealing with her dilemmas. She even began hating origami because it reminded her of the pain. Having lost interest in origami, she no longer found meaning in her thesis, so eventually I quit her masters and worked in architectural offices. But even after quitting school She could not ignore the incident as my images were still getting stolen. She was also continued receiving requests from other publishers; all of which she turned down because she hated the attention and publicity. Teh became a different person...

 

As the earthquake struck Japan in March 2011, Teh decided to get active on Redbubble and Zazzle again, and vouched her earnings from both sites to raise funds for Japan's earthquake tsunami relief efforts. As much as she cared about the cause, she was not pursuing my art from my heart; rather she was forcing herself to. During the spring however, Teh re-connected with a long lost contact, and began to remember her joy for art. Since then she rekindled her desire to create, but the problem was the lack of time. Teh was very busy with her job, which continued to occupy her for many months. Because of her job she still turned down publications or requests asking to use her images; but was able to spare one Saturday for a TV interview.

Eventually, in the summer of 2012, Teh left my job to pursue her dreams; though went back occasionally on an on-call basis. Since then she began exhibiting and selling my work in public; pursuing many exciting opportunities and new ventures while doing other jobs unrelated to architecture. Towards the end of 2017 Teh returned to my former architecture job full-time, but continued to pursue her art activities. While keeping up with her art and her busy architecture job was not easy, Teh's most exciting opportunity was yet to come.

 

In 2019 Teh was invited to participate in an international exhibition as part of an Artist in Residence program in the UK, where she lived with Japanese artists for fourteen days. They taught her the secrets to their success, and to appreciate design and its process. Then came the day of our group exhibition, where Teh made sales of notable recognition. But all the new friends and memories she gained was worth more than the great sales she made.

The inspiration continued after the end of the program, as Teh met her friend who helped her overcome her darkness of 2010. Teh's friend saw new light in his city after seeing what she saw through her photography. As they bid goodbye, he thanked her for showing him the world through fresh eyes.

 

Into the year 2020, Teh exhibited a mounted print of one of her old paintings. The work was formerly titled "Sunset with Blue Trees", but as her friend's words repeated in her mind, Teh found new meaning in her painting and renamed it to Sunrise through Fresh Eyes, and sold the print.

 

 

The new meaning behind the painting could not be more true today. During the pandemic Teh was less active with her art due to the cancellation of all events. But rather than feeling disappointment, Teh feel grateful for all the opportunities she took up before the chances were lost; the greatest one of which happened the year before lockdown.

 

 

Presently Teh feel luckier than many, but she knows she can always change because she I nearly lost myself in 2010 just when she thought she had already overcome the most difficult times. Teh's journey will never end, she may lose my passion again in the future with no guarantee that she can come back. But if that happens, she hope to be remembered for who she was during her brightest days

 

In the dark, the air felt cold
But I could see the light beyond.
In the past I’ve been told
Toils will never be forever gone.
And thus I know that beyond that light,
There will be new challenges to face.
But for now I’ll enjoy the sight
And make the most out of today.

 

 

Events
 

 

In the summer of 2013 Teh began mixing with the Japanese community in Toronto. Little did she know this would plant the seed to her art adventures. The following November Teh exhibited some of her miniature origami photos for the first time in a Japanese themed exhibition, and since then made more connections and pursued new opportunities. The following year she transitioned from showcasing her miniature origami through photography to exhibiting the actual creations.
 

 

 

The origami maple leaf crane was is an original design by Teh, dedicated to the Japanese friends she made since 2013; most who came from Japan on visas. Sadly, many have gone back to their home country. But regardless of where we are, near or far, we are always together...

See all past and current events/projects here

 

 

 

Features

Apart from Redbubble, or promotions related to events, Teh's past features include, but are not limited to:
 

TORJA Toronto + Japan Magazine (November 2015)
'How to be creative in Toronto?'

CBS local’s morning show ‘Good Day Sacramento’ (2011)
'Tiny Origami'

‘Soulpancake’ - a website created by actor Rainn Wilson (2009)
'Single Sheet of Art'

September 2009 issue of Montreal based magazine Plaisirs de Vivre/ Living with Style
'Microtendance - Small is Beautiful'

 

 

 

	Tweet

 

All content here is © Copyright Mui-Ling Teh, All Rights Reserved, and may not be used without my permission. Any site using my images against my conditions have not sought proper permission and should be reported or brought to my attention immediately.

 

Back to Homepage