Since I can remember, I’ve been painting. Every year, my dad made calligraphy artwork and had me and my sisters finish it off with watercolors to hand out as Christmas gifts to neighbors and friends. As I grew older, I began practicing different mediums until I eventually landed on oil painting. As a stay-at-home mom, I taught myself how to paint. I began by painting small landscape studies of places I’d never been, longing to escape the confines of my surroundings and the pain that life had encompassed me in. Through the accumulation of immense grief and loss, my perspective on painting has developed into something deeper. I no longer paint foreign places I’ve never seen; I paint what is right in front of me. I no longer paint as a means of escape, but rather as a means of preserving and embracing the grief and beauty around me.