I was 4 years old and balling my eyes out until I threw up, that’s what my first few days at school looked like. Every morning my poor mom had to explain to all the other parents that no, I was not sick, I was just really, really bad at saying goodbye.
Sleepovers or playdates at a friend's house were a no no for me for a long time and staying with my grandparents involved me sleeping in my grandmother’s bed for at least the first week. I even had an issue going to swim practice where my mom would literally be on the other side of the glass where I could see her!
Suffice it to say that goodbyes have never been my strong suit, I always have to be careful not to let the sadness overwhelm me in the days or weeks leading up to it.
But instead of shying away from goodbyes, I have embraced them.
I chose to live a life in which I have to say goodbye to everything that is familiar to me on a semi-regular basis. They have become a central part of my life.
But they haven’t become any easier, which is why I have this almost uncontrollable urge to capture every inch of the places I visit, just so I can hold on to them when I inevitably have to leave them behind.
Living as an expat is not easy for someone like me. Every time I have to leave, I am forced to say goodbye to everything that has become familiar and then I have to start over in an unfamiliar place where I sometimes don’t even speak the language.
My obsession with capturing everything, combined with this opportunity to travel the world, lead me to creating photo based, mixed media memory scapes.
Back in my studio, I fuse my photographs into condensed memory scapes. To preserve the physical connection to the places I love, I choose to use transfers of the actual photographs combined with acrylic paints and mediums to create mixed media scenes that capture the essence of my memories.
Frequent travels allow my ongoing body of work ‘Traveling the World’ to grow and evolve as I explore and add new destinations. A recent stint of living in Japan inspired a deep dive in Japanese arts and aesthetics which resulted in my new series ‘World on Washi’.
My art is what grounds me, it is my way to familiarize myself with my new environment and it is what I spend most of my time with. My art is what keeps me connected to the places I had to leave behind.
As I continue to travel and experience the world I will keep on growing and evolving as an artist and as a person.
ARTIST • EXPAT • TRAVELER
“I hate saying goodbye but I did it anyway. 🥲 Fueled by farewells, I paint places I miss so I can hold on to them forever”
