Many of her canvas works tell stories that unfold in a domestic setting. Her favourite painting in the series features a boy and a girl sharing a steaming bowl of noodles in their living room surrounded by dumpling-shaped pillows and a red laceleaf sprouting from a wine bottle. The girl stands confidently in a blank tank top and white shorts, flaunting her cascade of noodles while the boy fishes none. 

In another, two figures sit apart on the sofa with their backs to each other and wine bottles scattered at their feet. In a split second, their tension is broken by the sudden drop of a lantern and the cat clawing at it, catching all three by surprise as their mouths hold agape. The fleeting moment is frozen in time. 

Despite her characters’ simple features, their body language divulges their inner thoughts. A character could be sprawled on the sofa drawing half-heartedly or sitting with her head hung low in response to her cat’s antics. Each looks comfortable in their skin, unfettered by the laws of conformity, and absorbed in a world of their own. 

The artist shares that she never drafts her paintings. Often, they start with a setting which slowly gets filled with trinkets that she’s noticed in her daily life, whether that’s the wine she’s tried or the flowers she was inspired by. 

“Adding a bit today, and a bit more tomorrow is how my paintings come to be.” 

Over the years, painting has become a therapeutic process and recently so has pottery. “When you’re wheel throwing, you can just concentrate on the process and nothing else. To me, that really helps,” Peep shares.

In Tears and Cheers, five of her pottery works make a captivating debut. Delicately adorned with felines and flora, each vessel is paired with a corresponding painting on paper. At first, she wanted to display a lot more pottery, having attempted hundreds, but none made the cut. 

“When I’d open the kiln and see that everything was ruined, I’d almost have a breakdown. It’s like putting your whole heart into something only to realise ‘No! Nothing good will come of this!’,” Peep says, “But I view it all as a learning process. I believe in keeping at it and continuing to work. In the end, even if it’s not perfect, I’ve still made something I truly love. That’s what gives me the biggest sense of accomplishment.”

Titled “Tears Container”, the five vessels are fragile and delicate, but beautiful nonetheless. They are a culmination of labour and love, and the physical manifestation of tears and cheers. 

One particular cup reads “Everything will fall into place” — looking at her triumphant solo, I’d like to think it has.