Terry Tonga Choi-Lunberg Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1971 -

I was born in the United States in 1971; my parents were new migrants from Hong Kong. I first began painting in watercolour alongside my father as a young child, a time when every one of us responds openly to our natural creative and artistic instincts. However, I did not pursue art and instead chose to follow a career in medicine which demanded many years of study, and painting became a memory of childhood. I believed that becoming a doctor was the best way for me to help others and touch them in a healing way. However, after gaining the medical degree that I thought was my destiny, a great disillusionment settled and this path was not to be. After foregoing medicine as a vocation, life's journey brought my husband and I to Tasmania in 1999. Nurtured by the island's peaceful, life-affirming natural environment, I was given the chance to rediscover my first love and passion, watercolour painting. Being able to paint again and feeling the creative spirit flow freely is a gift, and I look upon every day as a blank piece of paper, a new beginning. This promise of hope and renewal is echoed in nature, and like so many artists who call Tasmania home, I draw endless inspiration from the beauty and purity of this island's majestic landscape. It is no wonder, for the magic of this island is a healing experience for all who embrace her and it is art's highest endeavour to touch and heal our bodies, minds, and spirits.


There comes a time in every artist's life when the fruit of creation becomes ripe and seeks to fall away from the vine. I have always painted from my own internal voice but the universe now urged me to share whatever I could offer wholeheartedly and openly to others. The motivation in opening our then new home as a studio and gallery in 2006 is reflected in its name, STUDIO KARMA, for I believe that our every intention and action has the possibility to create a positive effect. It is my desire that the positive joyous energy from the creative effort will be continued through giving, for art is an act of creating and sharing, bringing into being and learning to let go, accepting one's gift and in turn, making it into a gift. For several years I was blessed by serendipitous meetings with people from all walks of life who found a sense of peace and beauty in our little home and fruitful garden. During their respite here, we shared a connection as fellow human travelers, exchanging our good will and encouragement for one another through our meeting and the medium of my paintings. My paintings and prints have found homes all around Australia, and I am truly honoured by that acceptance and trust which sustains every artist's spirit.

Everything under the sun has its time and place, and in 2010, our family decided to conclude our studio business as I embarked upon other projects which demanded my full focus. My regular painting practice has also taken another hiatus, with my only works produced in the past several years being commissions. However, I have no doubt that I am an artist at my core and when the time is right again, I would be ready and able to pick up the brush as if yesterday. As my creation, my paintings came into being through me, but they are not my own to possess. For some years now my paintings have been quietly dormant, slumbering in privacy, and although I know each one as intimately as a mother knows her child, even I have not viewed them for some time. They wait at ease and without expectation for the day they will see the light and fulfill art's noblest goal of connecting one human's spirit with another. Some things grow more fond and precious as our understanding matures with time, like memories of childhood and old friends.


The time is now ripe for me to release a significant selection of my works from my artistic reawakening period from 2001-2011 for my fellow human community's discovery and hopefully, pleasure derived from it. My husband, my mother and I warmly welcome you to our home and studio and gallery this Spring 2015 for the 10 days our home will once again be open as STUDIO KARMA for showing and selling of my original paintings and limited edition prints. We are revolving and evolving in the cosmos in a cycle and I feel at this time of my journey, many things have come full circle. I am very blessed and humbled to be able to extend my feeling of oneness with all who will enter our circle during this event and know that we shall all be givers and receivers in that embrace. If my work can bring something fruitful to the table to inspire and encourage our sense of connectedness with our earth, nature, and each other, then I am wholly rewarded and content, as a human being and artist.