Di Wu Munk of Dots & Lines on Art, Connection and Her Favorite Asian Restaurants in Calgary

There was one artist.

That’s where it starts — not with a business plan, but with one person Di Wu Munk was working alongside during the pandemic, and the thing she couldn’t stop noticing about the job. The making was maybe a third of it. The rest was scheduling, bookings, payments, marketing, chasing people who hadn’t replied. All the hustle behind every beautiful session, and none of it the reason anyone becomes an artist.

Di had barely landed. She’d arrived from Chongqing — the city in southwest China that gave the world its fiercest hot pot, where spice is close to a civic identity — with her family, into a Calgary where the winters are long and it is very easy to stay indoors. She was settling into a new country and starting a company in the same breath, which is not the order most people would choose.

She started with that one artist and a laptop. Three years later, Dots & Lines has put more than 5,000 people through 60-plus workshops, across 15-plus mediums, with 20-plus artists, in more than ten locations — from downtown Calgary out into the Canadian Rockies.

It’s a marketplace, technically: professional artists on one side, and on the other, people and companies who want to spend two hours making something with their hands. Paper quilling, stained glass, candle making, pottery, mandala dotting, printmaking. The artists teach. The platform takes the admin.

She is also early to something that has since become a measurable category. Analysts tracking the craft-workshop sector put it on compound growth of roughly 8 to 9 per cent a year through 2034, with adults — not children — making up the largest share of participants and corporate team-building repeatedly named as one of the main drivers. The most engaged attend four to six workshops a year, which is the number that tells you this is a habit rather than a novelty.

That Chongqing detail matters more to the second half of this piece than you’d expect.

For Locals Insider Di writes about why she built it, why she thinks making something with your hands next to a stranger does something scrolling never will, where to start if you’ve never done a workshop in your life, and where she eats in Calgary when the days get long.

The Problem Wasn’t the Art. It Was the Admin.

Dots & Lines began during the pandemic — a time when technology connected us globally yet left so many of us feeling completely isolated locally. I started with one artist, a laptop, and a community craving a creative break.

“I didn’t set out to build a business. I set out to fix something I couldn’t stop noticing.”

Working closely with that artist, I noticed the invisible weight they carried — scheduling, bookings, payments, marketing — all the hustle behind every beautiful session. I wanted to build something that handles logistics so artists can stay fully in their creative zone.

“All the hustle behind every beautiful session.”

It’s been three years of trial and error since launching in Calgary, just after my family and I moved here — settling into a new country while building a company, all at once. Along the way, it’s been a privilege to work with incredible local artists and help grow their own art experience businesses.

5,000 People, 60 Workshops, One Laptop

Three years later, that bridge has carried more than 5,000 people through 60-plus workshops, across 15-plus mediums, hosted by 20-plus artists, in more than 10 locations from downtown Calgary to the Canadian Rockies.

It still surprises me how much of it started from just paying attention to a problem that was sitting right in front of me.

Running Dots & Lines is, in a lot of ways, still what it was on day one: showing up for artists and showing up for the people who want to create something real with them. No hype, no filler — just the experience, speaking for itself.

What I’m most grateful for is watching individuals, families, and corporate teams step away from routine and create something together.

“Here’s the irony I love most: we use a screen — our website — to inspire people to put their screens down and pick up a paintbrush.”

Nobody on a Pottery Wheel Gets to Hide Behind a Job Title

Here’s something I believe deeply, and it’s the whole reason Dots & Lines exists: creating something with your hands, next to other people, does something that scrolling through a feed of other people’s art never will.

There’s a specific kind of connection that happens when you’re elbow-to-elbow with a stranger, both of you struggling with the same stubborn piece of clay, and you end up laughing about it together.

Or when a couple shows up for a paint night not really knowing what to expect, and leaves having talked — no phones, no distractions, just two hours of making something and being present with each other.

Or when a corporate team that barely talks outside of Slack ends up genuinely collaborating, because nobody on a pottery wheel gets to hide behind a job title.

“Art, when it’s hands-on and shared, pulls people out of isolation in a way almost nothing else does. It doesn’t ask you to be good at it.”

It just asks you to show up, try something, and be in the room with other humans doing the same. In a city like Calgary, where winters are long and it’s easy to default staying in, I think that matters more than people realize.

Small, Recurring Excuses to Get Off the Couch

We’re not just running workshops. We’re building small, recurring excuses for people to get off their couches, meet each other, and make something real — together.

That’s the whole bet behind Dots & Lines: that connection through creation isn’t a nice-to-have.

“It’s something people are quietly starving for, and once they get a taste of it, they come back.”

If You’ve Never Made Anything, Start Here

If you’ve never done a Dots & Lines experience before, here are a few good ones to start with:

Paper Quilling — a quiet, detail-focused craft that’s surprisingly meditative for a first-timer.

Collage Making — social and low-key, a great pick if you’re coming with friends and want it to feel more like a hangout than a class.

Glowing Paint Night — playful and a little unexpected, a fun one for a group night out.

Stained Glass — you leave with something you’ll want to display, which is a nice confidence boost early on.

Candle Making — hands-on, sensory, and forgiving if it’s your first time trying something like this.

Mixed Media — a good pick if you want to experiment with a few materials at once rather than committing to just one technique.

Whatever medium you land on first, the goal is the same: you walk in not knowing anyone, and you walk out having made something — and usually, having made a small connection or two along the way.

“Calgary is full of people doing exactly that kind of work, quietly, all over the city — you just have to know where to look.”

It’s Never the Polish. It’s the Person Behind It.

I think a lot about what makes an experience — a meal, a workshop, an afternoon with your hands busy — stick with you. It’s never the polish. It’s the person behind it: the chef who’s been perfecting one dish for decades, the artist who lights up talking about their medium, the small choices that tell you someone cared.

Best Asian Restaurants in Calgary Di Go When She Needs to Reset

Building something from scratch means a lot of long days — sourcing venues, coaching artists, writing copy at midnight, showing up early to make sure a workshop runs the way it should. Calgary’s food scene, and specifically its Asian food scene, has quietly become the thing that keeps me sane through all of it.

These are a few places I keep coming back to — not because they’re trendy, but because they feel like exhaling.

Chine Hot Pot & Noodles — The Broth That Reminds Me of Home

“I’m originally from Chongqing — the spicy city, and I mean that literally.”

Spice is basically part of the local identity there, so my standards for a proper Szechuan broth are, admittedly, unreasonably high. Chine is one of the few places in Calgary that gets it right.

Everyone at the table gets their own pot, which means I can push my broth into “as fiery as possible” territory while everyone else stays comfortably mild, and somehow, we’re still all sharing the same meal.

It’s the closest thing I’ve found here to the hot pot dinners I grew up with, and there’s something about that mix of heat and togetherness that feels like exactly what Dots & Lines is trying to do with art.

“Everyone building something at their own intensity, at the same table.”

Jurees Thai Place — The Date-Night Order

This one’s a longtime Calgary institution on 16th Ave NW — the kind of spot with a loyal following that’s been coming back for years. It leans into full Thai hospitality, right down to the décor, and the green curry and pad Thai are the dishes regulars keep ordering.

“This is the spot that feels like a hug.”

The pad Thai here is rich and savory in exactly the way I want it, and it’s become our date-night order — the evenings my husband and I get lucky enough to have a babysitter and just sit across from each other for an hour, no agenda, just good food.

Lulu Bar — Where I Go to Celebrate

Not strictly “Asian” in the traditional sense, but Lulu Bar’s Pacific Rim menu — equal parts Asia, Hawaii, and the West Coast — is exactly the kind of playful, shareable food I gravitate toward after a long week. Think BBQ duck, dumplings, and skewers meant for a table full of people splitting everything.

This is where I go to celebrate — a milestone, a launch, a good week. The food is playful in exactly the way I want our workshops to feel.

Korilla Korean BBQ — Everyone Cooks, Nobody Watches

Table-side grilling, premium cuts, and a lively room built for sharing — it’s the kind of meal that forces everyone at the table to slow down and actually cook together.

There’s something about tending your own grill alongside the people you’re with that feels very on-brand for what we do at Dots & Lines.

“Nobody’s just watching. Everyone’s got their hands in it.”

Calan Beef Noodle — A Bowl That Fixes the Day

Some nights call for something simple, hot, and completely unfussy. Calan Beef Noodle is exactly that.

When I don’t have the bandwidth for a sit-down meal but still need something that nourishes me, this is where I go — no ceremony, just a bowl that fixes the day.

More from us on art, food and the people behind both.

Di grew up in Chongqing, and our guide to Chengdu — local favorites and a gastronomic journey covers the same corner of Sichuan her hot pot standards come from.

If Jurees has you thinking about Thai food, our meal at Khaan in Bangkok was the highlight of the trip. Her line about the chef who’s been perfecting one dish for decades has a counterpart in Chef Masa of Sushi Masa on cooking without noise in Singapore.

For more artists writing about the cities that shaped them, Richard Stabbert on painting in Provincetown is the closest sibling to this piece. And if it’s the food you came for, the best new restaurants in the world and Europe’s food cities, with the best restaurants for solo dining are where to go next.