In 2013, 2018, and 2023 I traveled to Skopelos, Greece to work at the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts (Skopart).

I spent the first twenty-two years of my life in Northern California. Berkeley, CA is not a beach town, but the San Francisco Bay can be seen from many points throughout the city, including the windows from my childhood home. I carry the redwoods, eucalyptus trees and the sight of the bay with me wherever I go, and I find that without the water as a reference, I have very few ways to center myself. Water is not only a way to find my bearings, but it is also a source of calm, rhythm, and endlessness; it is a way back to myself.

Working at Skopart offered me a number of opportunities. I thoroughly enjoy being a foreigner; I find unfamiliar territory encourages risks in the studio as well as a freedom and exhilaration I cannot attain at home. Surrounded by water, I was both in a new place and yet I found it strangely familiar. The hills and foliage resembled those of the Northern California coast. While at Skopart, I walked daily, contemplating the qualities of and varied relationships between water, earth, air and light. My work is inspired by impression, memory, and the clarity of specific moments. On the Greek island of Skopelos - or on any small island - the transition between water and land is not a linear transition but rather a radial one; if you stand at a high point on the land, everywhere you look has a coastal view. At Skopart, my intention was to compare the experience of living on a coast and the singular and solitary qualities of an island visit.