Andrea Mai – Artist Diary

March 10, 2026

SPIRITS HELP ME SEE WHAT I CAN’T – EVP September 22, 2021

Subscribe to continue reading

Become a paid subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other exclusive content.

September 24, 2021

I RECORED A NEW SONG – “MUSIC BOX” BY ANDREA MAI

It’s been a busy summer. I’ve spent everyday in the garden, taking care of my herbs. I haven’t had much time to work on my art and music lately. But there’s a track that I just polished off recently. I composed it in an afternoon and recorded it during the spring. It kind of surprised me how quickly I wrote it, as I have very little musical training, only from middle school.

In 2015, a friend who is a professional astrologer, gave me a reading. She asked if I sang or played any instruments. I said no. She said she saw some potential in my chart for music. I just kinda laughed. I look back at it kind of differently now. I’ve always had this thing where music just came out of me, but I was too intimidated to try doing anything about it. Part of it being, my visual impairment, I find it difficult for me to read sheet music. So I never really learned. But I still liked to mess around on the piano once in a while when I had the urge.

After P showed up, I’d have a stronger desire to play. Sometimes I record EVP as I’m playing, and I can hear him in the recording, guiding and directing me. So maybe, some of the ideas are really his. It was my dad who bought the piano, because he wanted me to play, like many of the wishes of Chinese parents for their kids. But I’ve had this strange psychological thing about not liking to play in front of family, especially my dad. It’s interesting knowing what P went through with his dad when he was a kid, wanting to learn piano.

Me and my 432 tuned piano ©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

I still don’t know that much about playing piano. I’d like to spend more time on it at some point. But for now, I’d like to share my new song with you. I call it Music Box.

Card for sale here. ©2021 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

Image above: “Late Bloomers” by Andrea Mai.

August 12, 2021

PRINCE AND I TRY EVP MAKER 2.5 – May 21, 2021

Does Using Voice Gibberish Work For EVP?

I recently started using a program called EVP Maker to record EVP. The software allows you to import speech samples and then generate a random gibberish from the sample. I have found that spirits don’t really sound the way they did in life, as they no longer have vocal cords. My theory is that they use thoughts to speak, and somehow these thoughts generate a frequency that can affect the sounds in our environment. So creating a gibberish from the person’s voice can help them speak in the voice we knew them for. It’s not a perfect technology, it doesn’t work all the time, and they can sound robotic. But it can give very tangible results that are audible to most ears. I’ve found that EVPs recorded in silence are near impossible to hear. I do have the ability to hear them, but I can rarely make out what is being said from their chatter.

Contrary to what people might assume, it is not assembling the chopped up syllables together in any way. The way it works with customized gibberish, is that the sound of the gibberish allows them to speak over it and it results in blending their voice into it, so that it sounds like them.

Sometimes I hear it being described as “changing the sound”, but I don’t feel that it is accurate to say that, as it would assume that they are doing it intentionally. I think this occurs naturally, like a scientific law; when these circumstances are present, this is what occurs. Like when you put a mic close to a speaker, feedback will occur. The reason you want a randomly generated gibberish is so that there are no words in the sound sample that could be mistaken for an EVP utterance.

The process is a little annoying for me, as the program can only be run on Windows. I have to use my old computer, which is very slow to work with. At first I didn’t hear much, but as I went through the recordings slowly, I found more clips that I didn’t notice earlier. Here are some clips from my recording sessions. Please note, they don’t speak like us any more, so you cannot expect perfectly sounding speech on EVP. In some clips, the syllables are spaced out, it varies.

This was from the very first recording, he says, “That’s the first time. Speak to me”.

“Hold on… Let’s see if work… That’s better”.

He said, “Always loved you. Ha. I sound funny”.

Then I heard, a basketball bounce, “Duane here”. Usually a basketball bounce means his half-brother is around. P said, “Basketball game here (bounce), I’m gonna watch”. P loves basketball, and his brother was a professional player. Later, he worked as a bodyguard for P.

I came back later and tried another recording. I asked him to try to say his name, “Prince Rogers Nelson”. The Prince part didn’t come out with the gibberish, but you can hear “Prince” spoken, and then “Rogers Nelson” very clearly immediately after in the gibberish.

He said, “I’m happy with Andrea”.

I wanted to make a recording of the gibberish itself, but I couldn’t figure out how to record what was coming from the computer and not from the mic. I caught P in conversation with others. He said, “I’m reading to them, passport, my book”. I thought this was a bit strange, Passport? Then I realized, there’s a pic of P’s passport in his book. I guess he was showing some people his memoir.

“That’s my passport”. I have to say, that it is one good looking passport photo, Must be the best I’ve ever seen. (Refer to above photo)

This is quite an exciting discovery. I wish it could run on Mac, or if someone could make an app version for mobile devices. I will definitely try it out again in the future.

May 25, 2021

ART UPDATE: PRINTING WITH LIGHT ACTIVATED DYES

I’ve been experimenting with light activated dyes for a couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting experience. The dyes react with UV light, and so different printing techniques can be applied. It’s an interesting medium for me to work with, as both a photographer and a textile artist, I get to print on both paper and fabric. Here are some of the results from my experiments.

I painted the dye onto silk. I created folds and placed it under some lace and exposed it to light. It created this interesting mosaic effect.
I printed on some silk satin and dyed it a light lilac color.
I made it into a hair scrunchie and it’s for sale in my Etsy store.
The UV printing has given me an opportunity to revisit my photo catalog and reimagine them in a new way. When working with photographs, a negative has to be created by inverting the image and printing it on acetate or translucent paper. I’ve been printing on tracing paper with a laser printer to try it out, as it is more economical. This is my Prince Sun photo that I sell in my shop as a print. It is a photo of Prince’s gate from his former Toronto home.
I made a print on paper, and fabric (seen on the bottom right). There is a color variation that occurs depending on what material you are printing on. I like painting the dye in an irregular shape. I find that it gives it a dream like effect.
I made a photogram on cotton fabric using lace and my Prince necklace.
I used the fabric to make a face mask.

The Solar Fast dyes come in different colors. Depending on the material used as the substrate, the colors will turn out differently. The same purple dye used on silk looks very different on cotton. Results can be unpredictable, which can keep things exciting, but difficult to replicate, so every print is one of a kind.

Image above: “Mont Blanc in blue” by Andrea Mai.

May 24, 2021

SPIRITS AFRAID OF GOING INTO THE LIGHT – EVP May 10, 2021

May 20, 2021

SOMETIMES IT SNOWS IN APRIL – PRINCE CELEBRATION 2021

Today is Prince’s five-year anniversary since his passing. Ever since that year, I’ve noticed snow in April. Like the title of his song, Sometimes it Snows in April. It was never like that before, here in Toronto. And this year, I woke up to a yard full of snow. It was a strong reminder to me that he is here with me.

I decided to go out for a morning walk, and I took my camera with me.

©2021 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

Five years seems like a long time ago. So much has happened since. The world is really a different place now. It’s weird, it’s like become less innocent. I feel nostalgic for simpler times, preferably the 2000’s. When we still bought music on CD, and people didn’t rely on social media to communicate. People seemed nicer back then. More civilized.

Later in the day, I made this piece of artwork in his honor. I experimented with some new materialsI recently acquired, making this UV print with some lace and a necklace of his symbol.

I hope you’re all doing well, keeping safe. Ttyl.

Image above: “Flowers in snow” by Andrea Mai.

April 21, 2021

ART UPDATE: EXPLORING NEW ART TECHNIQUES – PHOTOGRAPHY, SILK PAINTING

April 5, 2021

THE EMPATH AND THE MIRAGE, WHEN NARCISSISTS ARE MISTAKEN FOR TWIN FLAMES OR SOUL MATES

How A Dysfunctional Relationships Can Pull You In

I have not written on the subject of twin flames in a while. I personally find it tiring to see that most information available on the internet is just plain wrong. I find that talking about it to anyone about is frustrating, because very few people are actually involved in a real twin flame situation. It seems to be that people approach me wanting to talk about it, are hoping that somehow I would validate their claims, and I simply do not have any desire to do so.

As I have said in past posts, most people claiming to be experiencing a twin flame relationship, are actually experiencing a dysfunctional one. And then comes along, these self-proclaimed spiritual gurus who have deluded themselves about what the twin flame is, and have gone on to teach their delusions to the masses. Many have preached about some version of a theory on the stages of twin flame unions. As someone who has experienced genuine twin soul encounters, I have concluded that these theories being promoted are totally wrong.

After some time studying the subject of narcissism, I have observed that these supposed twin flame stages are really what a narcissist will put you through when you are romantically involved with one. It is cleverly disguised as somehow being spiritually significant, and so the narc’s victim is blinded by the situation.

First of all, a very many of you out there, who believe in twin flames are likely to be of the empathic nature. This means that you feel things greatly and you use your feelings to guide you. However, many of you assume that being empathic is the norm for everyone else. It is as though you grew up knowing that there is a spiritual realm and you thought that everyone else knew it too. So it is a culture shock to you, when you became the laughingstock at school when you casually mentioned that you thought you saw your dead grandmother walking in the hallway when you got up to go to the bathroom last night. You assumed this was normal and so you trusted that your friends would understand. Empaths and narcissists are like different cultures, and so they interpret things differently. These differences cause much frustration for the empath.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

Subscribe

April 2, 2021

FRIENDS IN THE AFTERLIFE – EVP May 10, 2020

Do Spirits Use Technology?

I recently reviewed an EVP recording from last year in May. I had put the recorder on in my basement studio, went upstairs and ended up staying there longer than anticipated. While I was away, the recorder picked up the spirit voices there.

Here is a voice saying, “Nobody’s here”. I had gone upstairs, I guess the spirits left too. and someone came to find no one there. I find it kind of amusing.

This one says, “Hey, Prince speaking”. “Hey, Prince, how are you?” I am guessing someone called P on the phone. They sounds so cute, like old friends calling each other up. Sometimes I find that P’s voice sounds very young. I suppose it would make sense, as many mediums have said that spirits assume a younger appearance in spirit. For example, a dog would revert to being a puppy.

Do you find it strange that they would speak to each other on telephone in spirit? I found it a little shocking at first. I heard from spirit that Steve Jobs is still designing and making iPhones in the afterlife, and gifting his creations to others. It makes me wonder if some of our modern day inventions are ideas given to us inby spirit.

But is that really so crazy? I know that when I dream, I see technology. I have been inside of a self-driving vehicle. I have taken photos with a digital camera in my dreams. It would make sense that technology could carry on in the afterlife as well.

And what does this mean for the progress of communication with spirit? It was only because of the technology we have that we could find tangible proof of spirit’s existence. What evidence of spirit could we be capturing in the future? Alas, it could be technology that brings us back closer to spirituality in the end. It all comes back full circle.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on May 10, 2020.

February 25, 2021

ART UPDATE: I FEEL INTO THE CRYPTO RABBIT HOLE

Some time ago, I was experimenting with animating my photographs using video editing software. I recently learned how to turn them in GIFs. And since then, I’e been looking at my body of work from a new perspective. I’m excited. Photo animation opens up new possibilities for how my photography can be presented as an artwork. The pandemic has been hard on my photography, as we are all being stuck at home all the time. For me as an artist, I am inspired by being in different places.

With all the hype in the news about Bitcoin and crypto currencies, I have learned something exciting. It felt as though I had just woken up from a coma. Everyone is now talking about Bitcoin, but they’re also talking about Ethereum, which I had never heard of before. Ethereum came about years after Bitcoin, and it was designed differently in that Smart Contracts can be built into the blockchain. This means when a piece of the blockchain has transferred ownership, there can be additional actions built in, such as commissions. What does this all mean, and why does it matter? For the first time in history, blockchain technology has offered a means to register an asset onto a decentralized public ledger. This protocol could be used for commercial applications like verifying authenticity, or to execute automated contracts like commissions on sales.

In the art world, authenticity of an artwork by a master has always been in question, as works can turn out to be counterfeits. And after an artwork is sold, it is generally the case that it is the collectors and auction houses that take all the profits in its future sale, not the artist. Blockchain technology offers an innovative solution to this age old problem. Artists can “tokenize” their works on a blockchain, like Ethereum, and program a Smart Contract to receive commissions if the token is sold in the future. A token is that piece of the blockchain that the artwork is registered to, and it acts like a public receipt that proves ownership. It is kind of like the deeds to a piece of land, though it is not the land itself, it is a legal representation of it, and when you sell it, the deeds have to be transferred to the new owner. The deeds is the proof of ownership registered in the government’s land registry.

This also solves an issue for digital artworks that tend to live on the internet, like animation and video. It could even apply to music. I can very much see this as being something major i the future of art, and I am excited to learn and participate in it as an early adopter. I have just added a new page on my website to explain a bit more about Crypto Art, the term being used to describe artworks that are tokenized. I have some of my animated photos there and will be posting more as I create them. The crypto art scene seems to like hanging out on Twitter, so if you want to join me there, come follow me at @AndreaMaiArt

February 5, 2021