Plotted at the intersection of online and offline experience, my practice explores how digital and physical spaces shape the way we create, share, and remember. With a background in studio art, computer science, and economics, I take a systems-based approach to making, one that prioritizes relationships, patterns, and networks of connection. I am drawn to objects that facilitate interaction, serving as both art and artifact, bridging the gaps between people, time, and place.
Much of my recent work has centered on playing cards, a format that naturally brings people together face to face. My most ambitious project to-date, At the Table, invited global participation in storytelling, turning shared memories into a deck of cards that could be held, shuffled, and played with. More recently, I have been working with public domain imagery, using it as a tool to bring historic art into contemporary hands. My Old Tides playing card deck reimagines centuries-old illustrations, prints, and designs in a way that makes them accessible and functional, encouraging others to engage with the past in new and tactile ways.
My creative process unfolds publicly, often in the form of multi-part series composed of short-form videos. I share insights into my artistic approach through tutorials and educational content, inviting audiences to engage not just with the final product but with the journey of making. Crowd-sourced collaboration is a vital element--many of my projects are reactive, shaped by audience participation, and influenced by shared stories and submissions. This exchange forms an artistic ecosystem where digital input feeds into physical output, reinforcing the ways online and offline creativity can coexist and enrich one another.
Despite the digital nature of my research and sourcing, I remain deeply concerned with physical connection. In a time when so much of life is mediated through screens, I want my work to encourage moments of real-world engagement--to be handled, shared, and experienced in person. Playing cards, in particular, serve as an antidote to the ephemeral nature of the internet: material objects that facilitate face-to-face interaction, shared experiences, and lasting memories. Through my practice, I advocate for a more conscious balance between digital discovery and offline engagement, using this ecosystem of mine to bridge the past with the present and the online with the tangible.
If you'd like to connect, email me or send me a letter! I'd love to hear from you.
xo Arynlei