HELEN LIU
“I love the process of seeing what happens under my own hand. I love the wonder that comes with getting up from a piece and seeing the crisp, weighty finished work, knowing that if you lean a little closer, it’s still made up of nothing but those individual, unassuming little lines.”
Helen Liu, or modesteraser, is a queer Chinese artist (she/her) based near tkoronto on turtle island. As an illustrator and printmaker, she specializes in pieces characterized by clean, detailed linework and nature-based themes. Her work is inspired by fungi, plants, creatures of all kinds, and more nebulous things: wonder, joy, unease, emptiness, and words left unsaid.
Helen is taking a pause this winter season to rest and slow down. In the spring, she is excited to be releasing a limited run risograph print of her first large-format work, “TELL YOUR PLANTS”, and showcase new works featuring native plants, insects, and more.
We had a chance to chat with Helen to get a peek inside her mind about her work and process!
First things first, it’s clear you have a deep love for nature – where does this love stem from?
“I think it probably unfurled slowly, like any other kind of love, building slowly on each new plant, animal, and environment I became acquainted with. But I would have to say the foundation comes from a childhood of hiking and camping, which – as I got older – became a more and more detailed inventory of my surroundings, looking closer at small details like insects and fungi that my younger self would have completely passed by. The complexity and lushness of our ecosystems and the creatures that inhabit them enthrall me now, and I think this is intricately tied to a love of knowledge, especially knowledge that grounds me to where I am in the world, surrounded by quietly teeming life. I want to be able to say hello to the plants around me. I want to be able to know every single living thing by name.”
What inspired the name modesteraser?
“It’s a combination of things, really. One of my favourite artists for a while now has been Modest Mouse, and I love everything about their music. I am obsessed with how effectively they capture feelings I grapple with and find difficulty putting in any physical form, art or otherwise, and I just wanted a little piece of that in me and my name.”
“modesteraser, as a whole, is a nod to all the rough behind-the-scenes work that goes into the pieces I am able to present – the groundwork of sketching and erasing before the lineart is laid down, and then the final pass to remove any indication of pencil in the final work. The undoing is one of the quietest, yet most important parts; it’s the polish that makes pen and ink art shine.”
Would you mind walking us through your process from getting an idea to knowing when it’s done?
“Not at all! The idea usually comes from disparate sources. Sometimes it’s a turn of phrase, sometimes it’s a feeling, sometimes it’s simply a photo I’ve taken or seen recently that draws me in with its composition or details in a way that makes me think, oh, I want to draw that. When starting off, I focus heavily on composition and feasibility – can I make this look the way I want to? Am I able to convey the feeling I want to? There are a lot of false starts. If I can’t get the feeling right by the thumbnail stage, I set it aside for later. Once the sketch is done, from there it’s easy – I go until it’s done. I usually lay down outlines and sometimes basic values in pencil, but all the shading and details are completed in ink as I go. I check my references constantly, and shade in layers until I reach a depth I am happy with. To be honest, I don’t always know when I’m done; sometimes I overwork it, and you can’t really go back from that, so in those cases I curse a little and scrap it, and if I’m lucky I don’t make the same mistake next time.”
Time seems like an important part of your process, and honestly it’s incredibly impressive how patient you are with the very meticulous pieces. What is it about teeny tiny details that gets you going?
“To me, the very best part of drawing lies in how little strokes of a pen on their own appear ambiguous, abstract even, but once put together they present a coherent picture that has depth and weight. I love the process of seeing that happen under my own hand. I love the wonder that comes with getting up from a piece and seeing the crisp, weighty finished work, knowing that if you lean a little closer, it’s still made up of nothing but those individual, unassuming little lines.”
What piece of artwork took you the longest to make? Would you have done anything differently?
“‘TELL YOUR PLANTS’ is my first (and only!) large-format piece. At 11” x 14”, it easily became my most time-consuming work; to put into perspective, my ink drawings usually cap at 5” and are done in one 3-5 hour sitting. ‘TELL YOUR PLANTS’ took 40+ hours and a lot of seasons of Blacklist.”
“Would I have done anything differently? Certainly, I wish my text line art was straighter. I wish I didn’t overwork the fiddle-leaf fig leaves so much. I wish I didn’t make that one mistake shading the wrong part of the spider plant that probably nobody notices but me. But in the end, I’m incredibly happy with the art, and who knows? I probably would have made the same mistakes the second time around. I’ve been told I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Sometimes I get too excited, but I don’t know if it shows as much as I think it does.”
Is there anything special or unexpected that happens when transferring your drawings onto carved lino blocks?
“To be honest, I think the most unexpected thing that happens is when I can transfer the full graphite drawing to the block successfully on the first try. Unfortunately, it’s not very often, and I usually have to go over portions with pencil and press it again, so it’s a real treat. The rest of the time, the transferring process is nothing but suffering. (-‘:”
What’s your favourite thing about printmaking?
“I am absolutely entranced every time I peel the paper off the inked lino block, when I do it right. The ink is fresh and solid, and it’s ever so slightly 3D on the surface of the page. I could never get tired of doing that peel and seeing that crispness. It’s the same crispness I love in pen drawing.”
“In close second is the actual process of carving, which I think a lot of printmakers would agree feels almost therapeutic. It’s so fun to hyper-fixate on all the tiny details that you can accomplish with a steady hand and sharp tool, which of course ultimately come to life when you do that final reveal when you ink the block for the first time and peel off that first, wondrous print.”
What do you do when you’re not creating amazing prints or drawings?
“When not printing and drawing, I am usually fast asleep with a couple of soft throw blankets… the rest of the time, I am in the field, working in environmental conservation and restoration. It’s a joy to spend all my time outdoors, planting trees, monitoring fish and amphibians, and checking out streams all over the Greater Toronto Area.”
“I’m incredibly lucky to be doing something I love.”
“(I’m a little less lucky right now in the -10 degree Celsius weather, but nevertheless.)”
You can only pick one – what plant would you be if you could be any?
“I would like to be a willow tree. They’re flexible and steadfast, and they are known to be incredibly resilient growers even in adverse conditions – a broken willow branch is able to grow wherever, so long as it is returned to the soil. They are also, of course, beautiful. Imagine living as a thousand-year-old willow, leaves swaying with the breeze as the tides of change pass you by. Amazing.”
If you like Helen‘s work and want to see inside her mind a little more, you can check out her Etsy or follow her on Instagram.
Image List:
1. JADED, 8” x 8”, Linocut, black ink on Fabriano Rosaspina Buff
2. TELL YOUR PLANTS, 11” x 14”, Pen and ink
3. OBSERVER, 8” x 10”, Linocut, black ink on Fabriano Rosaspina Buff
4. STRANGER, 4” x 4”, Pen and ink
5. CYCLES, 4.75” x 3”, Linocut, silver ink on Stonehenge Black.
Keep an eye out on the community page of our website, where we’ll be adding information about our monthly featured artists and businesses who inspire us with what they are doing!
