About Abstract Emporium

The making behind the candles, the knits, and the paint.

Process crumbs — knit + pour (candle photo soon)

I guess you could say I had a creative side growing up — I just never really explored it, and didn't think I could. I remember making these little bookmarks as a kid, drawing them up and colouring them in with all sorts of wacky colours. That was about the extent of it.

Then the teens came, and work, and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. The creativity pretty much went to the wayside. It wasn't really a part of how I saw myself.

A real parade of side quests started in my late 20s — some big changes in my life. And then one afternoon, on a day off work, I just decided to grab some paint and spread it all over the place. I remember making a total mess out of paint, and how much fun that was. That's where it started — going down rabbit holes of different mediums, learning to use a heat gun to pull the cell effects in fluid acrylics.

12 Years of Creativity — From Sketchbook Kid to Handmade Business

I still have those first four paintings — each standing on its own — from when I first started, over twelve years ago. They're still with me. What began as messy fluid pours and playing with light and texture has grown into the full Abstract Emporium you see today: the same hands that made those early paintings now pour every candle, knit every slipper, and keep creating one-of-a-kind art. No AI. No mass production. Just making things by hand in Thunder Bay, the way I’ve always loved.

→ See “Where It All Began — 12 Years of Creativity” on the Art page

Personal Gallery — Pours on My Walls

Personal stash — fluid pour canvases on my apartment wall with glow-in-the-dark stars and planets

Canvas pours on my walls — the private stash that started it all.

Keep It Mello wood pour with music notes, hearts, and glow-in-the-dark star sticker on the wall below

Wood pours with glow stars — same creative thread from the first messy experiments.

See the full Personal Stash (13 pieces) on Art Emporium →

Lissa with her largest abstract fluid medium pour commission on canvas — purple pink white, for a music studio wall in Alberta — **Biggest abstract fluid pour commission to date** Me with the largest **abstract fluid medium pour on canvas** I’ve made so far. It was too big for my vehicle — I waited beside the car with the canvas leaning on it until a friend with a truck showed up so we could get it in the trunk. Good times; I’ll always remember it. It went to someone in **Alberta**, who hung it on the wall of his **music studio**. That’s the adventure side of making art — the mess, the logistics, the “how are we even moving this?” moments.

Want something of your own on the wall — or cozy knits for the same Thunder Bay hands?

Celestial Drift — for sale now Personal stash (showcase) Lissa's Knitting ready stock

Sold Works

See current works at the Art Emporium gallery →

Complete the cozy experience

Pair your candle with handmade knit slippers — or the one original on the wall right now. Knitting → · Celestial Drift → · Z3NW1CK →