I create paintings using oil on clear primed linen, translating sensorial memories into images. My various sources of inspiration range from cherished objects to culturally significant artifacts, such as old Korean landscapes, architecture, and porcelain. These tangible influences intertwine with intangible elements encompassing temperature, time, sound, and scent. Through abstraction of space and shapes, I fuse these contrasting substances and capture fleeting moments that are otherwise elusive to grasp.

 I make work that addresses the meaning of home or, sometimes, the lack thereof for individuals like myself: those who grew up as children of multiple cultures and places. My paintings are a personal investigation into the complex question of how we as individuals define home and, more specifically, where home is located for people with variegated cultural identities. My own experience as a Generation 1.5 immigrant has put me on a journey of floating back and forth in perpetuum between time zones seventeen hours apart, trying to navigate myself to a place that feels like home.

 The figures in my oil paintings have their facial expressions hidden, as if keep-ing a secret or like they are asleep. Their huge bodies look heavy enough to make a lot of noise when moving around, but, paradoxically, they also seem to float as in dreams or recollections, implying the suspension of time in memory.

 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.