In Passage

A Journey into Artistic Imagination with

Priscilla Tey

Creativity knows no limits. Drawn from this ethos, "Beyond The Canvas” transcends boundaries in a unique showcase of six local artists’ talents and visions. The Perfect Bound Customised Notebook isn’t merely a product, but a tribute to the individual artist’s creative flair and personal expression. Each notebook becomes a canvas on which their works come to life, offering a window into the imaginative worlds of these remarkable creators.

In our intimate conversation with Priscilla Tey, she shared the inspirations that fuel her imagination, from childhood memories to the magical worlds she creates through her art. Priscilla's passion for storytelling shines through her work, inviting you to explore the emotions and reflections that resonate within each piece. Read more to glimpse the heart and soul of Priscilla, who captures a moment of transition and change, celebrating the journey while honouring the traditions of the past for Bynd Artisan's "Beyond the Canvas" collection.

Hi Priscilla. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us and being part of the “Beyond The Canvas” artist showcase. For readers who are not yet familiar with you and your work, could you give us a short self-introduction?
Hi, I’m Priscilla Tey. I’m an illustrator as well as a children’s book author. I love writing stories, I love illustrating them, and I love bringing them to life through the pictures I create. Whether I’m working with gouache, digital media, pencil or acrylics, I enjoy exploring various mediums to tell stories through my pictures.

How does art resonate with you on a personal level?
For me, illustration is a way to transport people into different spaces. When I was growing up, the kind of visuals and illustrations that spoke to me were ones that I could really escape into. I really love dabbling in fiction and fantasy. A lot of times, people think fiction and fantasy are about what is untrue, what is made up, and are make-believe. But to me, there is actually a lot of truth in fantasy and in fiction. It is a reflection of the things that are around us — the realities around us presented in a different way. Reimagining them in a different way helps us look at our day-to-day lives from other perspectives. Essentially, that’s what I aim to do with my art. If I can transport people into a different space and take them somewhere else, such that when they go back to their day-to-day realities, they can see something new, then that makes me really happy.

What inspired you to pursue art in this field, and what insights have you gained about yourself along the way?
I often find the question of what inspires me and what drives me to be an artist difficult to answer, simply because I can’t really pinpoint a time when I didn’t want to be an artist. It was something ingrained in my psyche from a very young age, and I think a lot of it involved me naturally gravitating towards visuals — everything from animation to books, seeing the people around me draw, paintings on the walls of my house, and even observing craftspeople when travelling. All of that fuelled my desire to become an artist.

As an illustrator, you are trained to have a strong mastery of drawing. Drawing is the core of your craft. You need to be so confident that your eye becomes like a camera. You have to put yourself in that “set”, whether it’s a make-believe set or a real one, and move that visual around in your brain, envisioning all these different spaces. With any fantasy, whether you are a writer or illustrator, you have to engage in something called “world-building”. You have to construct the entire world — from the culture to the history, to the mechanics of the world — so well that when you branch off into any story, it fits and is believable, with some kind of reality within it. Similarly with visuals, I like to be engaged with that process because I’m not just an illustrator, I’m also a set designer, an architect, a filmmaker, a costume designer — I’m wearing all these different hats.

Can you tell us about the piece you created for Bynd Artisan’s “10 Years and Beyond” and what it means?
For this piece that I created for Bynd Artisan’s 10th anniversary, I titled it “In Passage.” It’s about the idea of being in transition from one phase to the next. I wanted it to be a celebration of that period when you are moving through to a new space. It is a time of change, but very exciting at the same time. It’s also an homage to the traditions of the past, which is why I incorporated Bynd Artisan’s old letterpress. Moving forward into the future is also about adapting old practices in your own way. It is a piece that reflects that period of flux and that moment when change is happening.

Apart from the pieces of the letterpress I included, I also added three birds that are morphing into mechanical parts because I like to always introduce an element of surprise and something unexpected into my work. It’s that shift from something inorganic to something really organic in that fluid motion that captures the idea of change and transition. The three birds are also a reflection of the three generations of Bynd Artisan. When they take flight at the centre, the scene becomes vibrant with activity, mirroring Bynd Artisan’s rich history spanning three generations. With the illustrations that I create, I always try to capture the story of a place, a brand, or a group of people. So I hope that’s what this picture achieves.

In what ways do you hope your artworks, particularly the “10 Years and Beyond” piece, will resonate with those who encounter them?

When I was considering where this illustration would fit — on the cover of a book — I thought about how a journal or a book is a space where people write down their thoughts and ideas. Often, it is this liminal space where we try to figure things out — it’s confusing and sometimes scary, but also extremely exciting. I hope that every time someone looks at this image, they feel that excitement. They’ll reflect on the things they’ve written in their journal or book, and it becomes a celebration of those intersecting thoughts, coming together in unexpected ways. You may not know how ideas will form or how things will turn out, but that’s okay. There is beauty in chaos, and so much to appreciate in that process.

Discover more insights and inspirations from the other artists featured in the Beyond The Canvas collection, and view the full collection here.