A
fitting name for a wildlife artist. Teom Lim translated from his ancient Hainan
dialect means "deep wilderness". Since his early childhood, Teom was influenced
by his father ( a world traveller and outdoorsman). Stories of jungle expeditions,
fishing trips and exotic wildlife were deeply imprinted into the child's imagination.
Most of his formative years were spent playing in the pristine wilderness of
Western Alberta, Canada. There his love for the land and water grew and eventually
lead him to an education in biology. With his passion for the outdoors, a university
degree to fortify his passion and an artistic eye, Teom is blessed with rare
perspective on wildlife art.
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His
career as a wildlife artist started as a bet from a friend. A free lunch
was the bet against Teom's carving skill. Although, he had never carved
before, Teom was not about to let a challenge from his friend slip by.
The result of this challenge was a beautiful carving of a sunfish delicately
"sipping" an insect from the surface of a pond. That little carving was
entered into the Canadian Fish Carving Championship where it won a 1st
place ribbon. It continued a seven competition winning streak until its
retirement. Since then Teom has won and successfully defended the Canadian
Fish Carving Champion title four times. He has also captured two blue
ribbons at the World Fish Carving Championships. |
After Teom's carvings are retired from competition (usually a one year competitive life span), some are donated to not-for profit organizations such as Fish & Game Clubs, Youth sporting organizations, college museums, etc. These donations were intended for fundraisers or teaching aids to further the concept of conserving nature. A few are kept by Teom as trophies of challenging competitions and hard fought victories. The remainder of his carvings are sold to collectors. As demand for Teom's art increases, he finds it difficult to keep up with competition pieces and commission work. Upon advice from other artists, Teom has begun to reproduce his work in signed and numbered copies. These reproductions are all hand crafted with the same loving attention as the originals.
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e-mail address: fish-art@shaw.ca