Before focusing almost entirely to sculpture, while still studying in the USA, Chan began her artistic career with painting. Her paintings create abstract compositions, where layers of transparencies and blocks of colors are brushed, seemingly, from underneath the picture plane with rays of light. Though the relationship between the two mediums may not be immediately obvious, her sculptures bring together the languages of architecture and the ready-made, while her paintings take a more introspective approach. They both share an exploration of a physical and psychological state, leading the viewer to drift from a macro into a micro space.