Editor’s note: Isabel Lu is featured in our May 2025 exhibition, Ones to Watch. See the exhibition here.
Several years ago, while completing their graduate degree in dietetics and public health, Isabel Lu began experiencing health problems of their own. Their mother suggested they see a Chinese doctor. "I was always hesitant to go that route," Isabel admits. "I thought, 'That's not real medicine.'"
They went anyway. After all, Isabel's early years had been steeped in elements of traditional Chinese medicine—drinking warm water in the morning, keeping their feet and stomach warm during their menstrual cycle, and using herbs for minor ailments—modeled by their family. But six years of studying Western nutrition and public health at Cornell and UNC Chapel Hill had left Isabel skeptical of the Chinese doctor who examined their tongue, prescribed some herbs, and recommended a few lifestyle and diet changes. They left the appointment, not expecting much. Weeks passed. Then months. Finally, to their shock, Isabel’s symptoms began to melt away around the four-month mark.
“Going through that process over four months made me more aware of how my body felt, how it responded to different herbs, how I was conserving energy, and even how my emotions were,” they recall. “That more holistic understanding of my health and wellbeing in relation to plants and my surroundings got me interested in learning more.”
Around this time, Isabel discovered an old set of oil paints they’d stashed at their parents' house, a relic from their visual arts high school days. After years of painstaking research and dutiful notetaking, they were ready for something different. “Painting changed a lot for me. I thought, ‘Oh, this is what it feels like to connect with myself again. Academia is so much research. It’s so much about trying to be these unbiased, objective scientists who put all their experiences and identities behind them in order to look at and observe the people they’re researching.” In contrast, studying Chinese medicine independently and engaging in a daily practice broadened Isabel’s perspective on the body and its modes of expression. “I realized that self-observation and exploration were just as valid a method to practice and discover medicine,” they say. “Western healthcare teaches us not to trust ourselves and our bodies—that knowledge and answers lie in people with degrees and white coats.”
Fittingly, Isabel paints themself into the lush narratives that unfold across their large canvases, using their self-portrait to unpack binary ideas surrounding medicine, remedies, and wellbeing. In “Corn,” they chomp down on the yellow crop native to the land we call Mexico, now a staple food in China. “The history of how it got transported to China is very murky,” says Isabel. “Corn is Indigenous; It’s American, and it’s also Chinese. How do people see and identify with food and people? I guess it depends on who is asking.”
In Today’s Q+Art Interview…
Isabel Lu discusses the fluidity of Chinese medicine, reading as a creative ritual, and why receiving bad fruit is the ultimate insult.
Which cultural concepts, themes, or philosophies inform your work?
Isabel Lu: My work is heavily influenced by a lot of frameworks from Chinese medicine. Concepts like yin and yang and the five elements show up in a lot of my paintings. I like how fluid these frameworks are and how they honor interdependence across time, bodies, land, and seasons. The concept of medicine itself is of interest to me right now; how it looks different for everyone and how it gets reinvented by people based on what we need in the moment.
What's your favorite creative ritual?
IL: Reading and taking notes. I’m usually reading textbooks or research articles about physiology, plants, or Chinese medicine. Taking notes helps me visualize all the info I’m reading. Sometimes I doodle little diagrams of organs, plants, or pathways. This whole process tends to spark ideas for paintings or other creative things.
What's something you keep in your studio that would surprise us?
IL: I have a bunch of photocards of J-Hope from BTS stuck to one of my studio walls. My friend and I saw him in concert this past March, and I got depressed afterwards. So he’s on my wall now as a coping mechanism.
Which talent would you most like to have?
IL: How to keep plants alive. It’s really embarrassing as a vegan that all of my plants have died under my care.
What is it that you most dislike?
IL: Really mid fruit. I'd rather you just tell me you hate me than give me an out-of-season, tasteless mango.
What is your greatest regret?
IL: I don’t have many regrets because I think every decision I’ve been able to learn and grow. Those decisions might lead me down a path I ultimately don’t want to continue, but I get to pick up skills and experience I would not have gotten otherwise. The things I regret are probably times I’ve hurt myself and other people with my actions. I used to have very obsessive and addictive qualities that caused harm to everything around me.
What role should money play in the art world?
IL: I wish money didn’t have a role in art. It really sends me down a spiral trying to navigate how to price and value different forms of art based on a mostly arbitrary system. Under- and over-pricing art can color how people respect an artist, but then no one can really explain what a “correct” price is.
What's the worst job you've ever had? The best?
IL: The best and worst “job” I’ve had was interning at a hospital and eating disorder program for my dietetics program. I got a really intimate look at our healthcare system in those 12 weeks. There are a lot of workers who want the best for their patients, but protocol and insurance companies get in the way of that. That experience made me really appreciate the work of nurses, physical therapists, and dietitians. After the internship, I was certain I did not want to work within a strictly Western healthcare institution. Patients who came from different cultural and language backgrounds were definitely not treated the same. I think that time pushed me to find different avenues of care and support for myself and those around me, which helped me find Chinese medicine and explore my own journey through painting.
Isabel Lu: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All images published with permission of Isabel Lu. featured photo: Danny Peña.