This project, begun during my final two under-grad semesters in U.C. Berkeley's Art Practice Department, was inspired in part by Brigitte Rouan's film outremer. As a double major in studio art and French, I had the serendipitous experience of coming across a stack of photocopied images of my mother - imagery I wasn't quite sure what to do with - shortly before watching this film about three sisters in post-colonial French Algeria. Researching the film, I came across phrases that became titles for the nearly 20 paintings that would make up this body of work, phrases like "beyond the mother," the literal translation of the modified title outre-mère, "geographical displacement," and "objects of childhood desire." I became interested in juxtaposing this found text with intensely personal imagery, representation, and surface abstraction to explore the mother-daughter relationship, and the cycle of loss, memory, and desire.

gallery of images