About Teom

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.

How it all started

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.

more about the artist and his work

After Teom's carvings are retired from competition (usually a one year competitive life span), some carvings 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.
Teom is an avid fisherman, which has led him to many exotic parts of the world. Catfish in California, carp in China, trevally in Taiwan, barracuda in Borneo, snappers in Singapore, marlins in Mexico, chinooks in Canada, mackerel in Malaysia, etc.
 To some observers, his fishing zeal may seem crazy but it makes him happy, and results in some of the amazing carvings we see today.