Settling Down

Perhaps I return to the subject of home because my own sense of home has been broken for as long as I can remember. Settling Down is an extension of 35760, a series I created early in my artistic practice. While my work has evolved into a more two-dimensional form, the underlying theme and search to understand what home truly means, has remained unchanged. To me, home is not a single place. It is something constantly shifting. Sometimes it changes from one night to the next. Over the last five years, I have rarely stayed in one place for more than two months. With each move, home evolves, shaped by new environments and experiences.

In this series, I explore emotions tied to uncertainty and belonging. The work gives voice to my anxiety about what lies ahead. Through dark colors, muted tones, and soft layers of paint, I reflect on the instability of place and a longing for permanence. At times, these paintings express a desire to settle down, to find a place to call home for years rather than months. At other times, they question the expectations society places on us: to buy a house, build stability, and work toward a version of comfort often presented as essential. In that tension, permanence becomes both a comfort and an obligation.

These works leave me wondering where home will be next. Are the layers within them a weight I carry with me, hanging over my head? Are they burdens I have learned to live alongside? Or are they slowly lifting from my shoulders, making room for something new?