About Abstract Emporium

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

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. I still have those first paintings — four of them, each standing on its own — from when I first started, over a decade ago. They're still with me.

One of Lissa's first fluid-acrylic pour paintings — hot-pink pours over black skeletal lines on raw canvas — One of the four — fluid acrylic pours over raw canvas.

Second origin painting — coral and teal fluid wash with black glitter-textured blobs on raw canvas — The second — fluid wash with textured black foreground.

Third origin painting — iridescent pastel blues, purples and greens, dreamlike atmospheric wash — The third — iridescent pastel pour.

Fourth origin painting — hot pink and magenta base with metallic gold and silver swirl cells — The fourth — pink and metallic gold cells.

A later special set — fluid pours on wood panel, hung on my wall:

Fluid pour on wood — teal and seafoam green over warm red and rust orange — Wood pour — cool greens over warm earth tones.

Fluid pour on wood — swirling teal, magenta and red with pearlescent streaks — Wood pour — teal, magenta and red swirls.

Fluid pour on wood — teal, crimson and golden yellow marble with vertical grain — Wood pour — teal, crimson and gold marble.

Fluid pour on wood — emerald, lime and turquoise with black and metallic silver — Wood pour — emerald and turquoise with metallic accents.

Through my late 20s into my early 30s, and again in my mid-30s, a lot of big life changes landed and dramatically shifted things. I picked up a pen and a sketch pad and started drawing freehand — sometimes just observing what was on my screen, or picking out a special character and running with it. I've been freehand drawing for about two or three years now.

These are all freehand — drawn, then painted on canvas and sealed with gloss, hanging on my wall. A few favourites:

Freehand drawing of Pinky and the Brain on a galaxy-fluid background, painted on canvas — Freehand — Pinky & the Brain on a galaxy pour. Narf!

Freehand drawing painted on canvas and sealed with gloss — Freehand — drawn, painted, glossed.

Freehand sketch of a crescent moon with three teal eyes holding a cigarette, surrounded by stars — Freehand — crescent moon sketch.

Freehand sketch of a lion-like creature with a cigarette, flame-edged — Freehand — lion sketch.

Freehand sketch of Beavis and Butt-Head with AC/DC and Metallica shirt logos — Freehand — Beavis & Butt-Head.

Freehand pencil sketch of SpongeBob SquarePants with his white collared shirt and tie — Freehand — SpongeBob sketch.

Freehand pencil sketch of an astronaut riding a reptilian, toothed creature with a wing fin — Freehand — astronaut on a beast.

Freehand sketchbook page with 9 Looney Tunes character studies (Bugs, Sylvester, Taz, Daffy, Marvin, Wile E.) dated Aug 13 2024 — Freehand — 9 Looney Tunes studies, Aug 13 2024.

Freehand pencil sketch of six lounging cartoon men, one holding a striped kitten, with mustaches, glasses and a cigarette — Freehand — a lounging group, one with a kitten.

Freehand South Park-style sketch: a one-eyed cyclops, a mustached police officer, round pom-pom characters and a TV-frame face — Freehand — South Park-style cast.

Freehand distorted SpongeBob SquarePants sketch with square-toothed grin and Patrick-like body, dated Aug 22 2024 — Freehand — a SpongeBob study, Aug 22 2024.

Freehand 6-panel Disney studies: Goofy, Daisy, Minnie, Mickey laughing, Goofy, Donald — Freehand — 6 Disney character studies.

Freehand marker drawing of two green mecha vehicles with a red-eyed bird-mask, wrapped in vine-like organic shapes — Freehand — green mecha study.

Freehand pencil sketch of a grey alien in striped robe smoking a joint in space with a ringed planet, UFO and rocks — Freehand — alien in space.

Freehand Arthur sketch: D.W., Arthur, Pal, Sue Ellen and Buster grouped, dated May 8 2026 — Freehand — Arthur cast, May 8 2026.

Freehand Winnie the Pooh sketch: Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet clustered, dated Sept 25 2024 — Freehand — Pooh crew, Sept 25 2024.

Commission fluid art painting in garage studio, with scale reference showing 36x36 inches — Untitled fluid art pour, 48×60\" (2020 commission — sold to friend, Alberta).

Untitled painting hung in client's music studio — 48x60 canvas couldn't fit in car — In situ — 48×60\" commission in client's music studio.

Sold Works

These abstract fluid-art paintings were commissioned and sold to a dear friend years ago:

Untitled black/red/white fluid art pour on canvas — Sold commission — black/red/white fluid art.

Untitled gold/yellow/orange fluid art pour on canvas — Sold commission — gold/yellow/orange fluid art.

Untitled pink/magenta fluid art pour on vertical canvas — Sold commission — pink/magenta fluid art.

Untitled pink/magenta/black fluid art pour on canvas — Sold commission — pink/magenta/black fluid art.

Untitled paired paintings — gold/yellow and black/red/white on wall — Sold commission — paired paintings in situ.

Untitled black/white/red fluid art pour on canvas with red curtain — Sold commission — black/white/red fluid art.

Untitled dark red/orange/black fluid art with silver center — Sold commission — dark red/orange/black fluid art.

Untitled black/white/red fluid art with silver cellular center — Sold commission — black/white/red with silver cells.

Untitled black/charcoal with purple streaks and gold flecks — Sold commission — black/purple/gold fluid art.

Untitled earthy magenta/royal blue fluid art on canvas — Sold commission — earthy magenta/blue fluid art.

Untitled neon lime green/teal with hot pink bottom — Sold commission — neon lime/blue fluid art.

Untitled 3-panel triptych — teal/purple/lavender stacked — Sold commission — triptych teal/purple.

From the fluid-acrylic pouring cups to the freehand drawing, it became a creative outlet. I noticed that once I got into healthcare and started working in the field, all of those little hobbies went to the wayside — right up until I got severely hurt.

After the injury, a lot of things shifted. I'd lost my work in healthcare to becoming disabled, and I needed a way to do some therapy — to find relief and distraction from that loss. That's where I got back into my fluid arts and pushed myself into freehand drawing. I try to make it a regular habit now. Recently I've started drawing on canvases and painting from my freehand work, which has been a fun thing to explore. In a sense I'm grateful it brought me back to creativity, despite the circumstances that did it.

On top of that, I've always had a huge thing for smells — I love all sorts of yummy scents, and I've always kept candles and incense around. Before I got hurt I was already exploring the idea of making candles, and I went ahead and tried it. Then the workplace injuries set in and that got put on hold. I recently restarted it — I'd missed it, and it's very therapeutic for me.

Knitting is something I've done since I was a kid — my mom and my mémère taught me, along with a little crochet. I remember making little knit squares as a child and donating them locally, where they'd get sewn together into blankets; I must've knit hundreds of those tiny squares. From them I learned scarves and knitted phennex slippers.

In my 20s and early adulthood I didn't do much of it — I was fully dedicated to my passion for working in healthcare. Knitting came back after the workplace injuries, and I started making slippers, scarves, and wash cloths again. I figured out knitted Swiffer WetJet pads too — those store-bought ones are costly, so I found an eco way: knit them, toss them in the wash, reuse. It's saved me a lot of money.

I also taught myself tuques and the pom-poms, and the stocking caps with long tails — that one was all on my own. Socks are still on the to-learn list; they need five needles and I'm not used to that yet, but I'm working on it.

It's not something I can do in large amounts, because of the physical injuries I live with. There's a lot of navigating between how my body feels and what I'm actually able to do on any given day, using spoon theory to pace it.

Abstract Emporium is where all of that lives now — the hand-poured candles, wax melts, and incense of Z3NW1CK, the slippers, tuques, wash cloths, and scarves of Lissa's Knitting Creations, and the abstract art that started with a mess and a free afternoon.

Want to see the work? View the gallery, shop Z3NW1CK, or browse the knits.