My artwork addresses the loss of my Japanese heritage from my family’s intergenerational experiences in the United States. I can connect with my lost Japanese identity by pairing the remnants of my family’s past with more dominant American realities—such as the Japanese American internment camps of World War II—in my artwork. Multiple types of techniques, materials, and imagery are layered on to one of my collaged paintings. Certain layers are seamless, while others are dissonant.

 My work challenges the oppression that Iranian women face within the Islamic patriarchy. Rather than explicit radicalism, I aim to craft an alternative world in my paintings—a realm exuding quiet power, intimacy, and freedom. Constructing heterotopic dreamscapes allows for an escape from the harsh reality of oppression and empowers the women depicted. These artworks narrate the life I left behind; they are exploring the bittersweet nostalgia of distant intimacies. Close friends and family members transform into surreal figures in idealistic visions of an alternate reality.

 I found myself mesmerized by the mysterious beauty and complexities of the natural world; I also see the same qualities of vulnerability and power interwoven in the aesthetic of female forms. Inspired by the sanctity and power of water, I infuse fluid elements in my paintings to provoke a sense of fantasy, reminding people of brief moments when life felt like a series of dreamy encounters.

 My paintings contain an essence of memory that is ubiquitous and roaming. I adhere to a process of poetic-imaging, wherein scenic memories are changed by the spaces in which they are remembered. The same way the mind travels through memory and presence, a viewer can travel through the spectrum of definition and illusion in a painting.

 The experience of making this work was akin to diving into a deep pool too narrow to turn around in but with an opening on the other end. I understood ahead of time that going through would require tremendous energy, contained within a single breath. I did not know, however, how deep the pool was, what was at the bottom, or if I would return.

 As an Armenian American raised between Suriname and Russia, I have always had to navigate the complexities of language, diasporas, migration, home, and globalization. My work utilizes traditional Eastern and Western methods of art and craft that have rich histories along global trade routes, such as textile and tile making, to further examine these ideas.

Simply being present feels tenuous in this current era of distraction. My work is a conscious attempt towards happiness, humor, and resiliency, chronicling the complex nature of being human during these modern times. I illustrate figures who seek to stay present when anxieties and emotions abound. When portraying such commonplace scenes, I utilize symbolism along with my materials to describe the visual, digital, and physical performance within quotidian life.

 Through painting I challenge archetypes of femininity and question expectations surrounding care, strength, and martyrdom. I reimagine familial stories, biblical folklore, and classic tropes of the hero, villain, and damsel through technicolor avatars and multilayered fields of light. By creating my own mythological taxonomy, I invite the viewer to indulge in fantasy as a way of grappling with interpersonal dynamics.