Told & Retold: Moving Inward with Metal

In this creative workshop, artist-in-residence Isabel Lu will guide us through a reflective practice of writing and drawing that focuses on experiences with medicine and centering the element of Metal in Chinese medicine. Metal is associated with Autumn, grief, lungs/large intestines, and inward movement. Join us as we reflect, draw and write, discuss the ideas shared, and enjoy warm tea and soup crafted by Isabel.

About the Artist:

Isabel Lu (b. 1997, North Carolina) is a painter, researcher, and community organizer whose work explores fluid ideas of medicine, remedy, and care. Their large-scale, vibrant portraits incorporate ancestral and contemporary concepts across both Western and Chinese medicine, herbalism, architecture, and mythology. They intertwine the physical body with medicinal plants, practices, and beings. To see parts of ourselves within these medicines offers space to find refuge and remedy in our relationship with our surroundings. Isabel’s paintings have been shown at Ella West Gallery, the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, and GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art. Isabel completed residences at Durham Art Guild and Artspace in Raleigh. They’ve spoken at Eastern Carolina University, Duke University, and North Carolina Museum of Art.