Pak-hing Kan makes boxes out of clay and what may sound mundane becomes poetic at her touch… When I look at her work, I am transported, almost to another realm. Ethereal. Her imagination seems to soar over the rest of us, but we can hitch a ride on her shirttails…. I’ve had her website up on my desktop for some time and kept coming back to it. Each time I saw it I was entranced…a quiet, private entrancement. Not once was I disappointed when I came across her page. Instead, I was thrilled. So it’s time to stop being selfish by keeping it to myself…. Her site is called ART OF CERAMIC BOX(ES). An artist based in New York City, Pak-hing makes one-of-a-kind pieces that are quite small. Her work would be painstaking but the results are exquisite. You can learn about her through two other sites: the Asian American Arts Alliance and the Chinese American Arts Council. From Hong Kong, Pak-hing was a fabric artist and a painter before she made the transition to ceramics. Her bio on the CAAC site says, “She works with traditional materials (clay and glaze) to make an old conceptual form (the box) in a contemporary way. She creates intimate, small-scale boxes that are exquisitely painted on all surfaces. She designs a unique silk 
wrap to accompany each piece.” I like that Pak-hing Kan has continued to paint and be involved with fabric. It is often the case that one gives up other mediums to work in a new one, but she manages to combine all of them. Her LinkedIn page states that she also works in concrete and glass. To me, she is very inspiring, in part because I adore boxes. When I was in high school, I made many boxes in my Dad’s shop, fashioning them out of any material at hand. They were all small, some tiny. I remember drying them in the vise on the workbench. About the same time, I began collecting small boxes and I treasure the ones I have, one inset with mother-of-pearl, another made of mahogany, and a tiny octagonal one of cloisonné, to name a few. I have several other irons in the fire right now, but when I have some time to begin working on something new, I might entertain the idea of small boxes, my own rendition. It’s wonderful to find such an inspiring artist and I hope you enjoy her work, too!
New York: Gallery 456, 1999. 1999 catalogue of the exhibition at Gallery 456 in Soho. Bright and Fine in its pictorial wrappers. 16mo, 96 pgs.
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