Theme: Home!

My version of home is mobile. Home doesn't have to be a fixed place for it to be familiar. It moves about with me, changing, adapting, but it's always there for when I need a space to relax, to read, to cook, to be sad or brave or silly, or to listen to music and dance! (Medium: Digital creation)

This piece was inspired by the corn and wheat fields of the midwest. This piece specifically came to me when I was in Indiana, visiting my sister with my mom, and we were standing in this windswept field, letting our dog stretch her legs. I feel most at home here in the rural flatlands of northern Michigan, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else 💕 (Medium: Digitally created in Procreate)

"Heart of the Underground" -- I never felt at home in a place my entire life. But that changed the moment I stepped out of Heathrow in 2013. My heart and soul felt settled. I explored so much of London by taking the underground that the two places are linked in my mind forever.  (Medium: Digital art)

My home city's public library. (Medium: Watercolor and colored pencil)

For me, home has always been where the cats are. Our two cats are sisters who came to us as tiny foster kittens and decided to make our home their home too - and really, it wouldn't feel like home without them. (Medium: Digital art)

I still have dreams about my middle school time. Endless homework and exams, but still, the most energetic and careless teenage days. My school was built 30 years ago, and the church next to it was built 200 years ago. Almost every other building in that area is now gone and has been replaced by skyscrapers. Why does time have to fly?

A table full of Lebanese food, like my mother or grandmother would make. Clockwise from upper left: tabouli, khyar bi laban (yogurt cucumber salad), hummus, fatayer (spinach pies), vermicelli rice, fattoush salad, syrian bread, sfeehas (meat pies), lahmajun (Armenian meat flatbeads). In the center is a pan of kibbeh, a spiced ground lamb dish. (Medium: Digital art)

This postcard is of a garden in a Mexican restaurant near where I grew up in Texas. It was one of my mom’s favorite places. She sometimes took us there for special occasions, and although I remember the food being incredible, what I really remember is us walking around after we ate. When I think of home, I think of my mom, the childhood she was able to give us, and by extension, the things she loved which I now also love.  (Medium: Multimedia paper, colored pencil, pen, and watercolor)

This is a view from Kings Park in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, looking out across the river to the distant hills. It incorporates a rainbow of native wildflowers including kangaroo paws, mulla mulla, and banksia. The colours of the lettering reflect the six seasons of the Whadjuk Noongar people, the traditional owners of this land. Western Australia is affectionately known as the Wait Awhile state because we're so laid back here, and after a childhood growing up all over the world, the beautiful environment has helped me to slow down and find my own sense of belonging here with my family. (Medium: Digital art)

I grew up in a town along the river, and we'd always kayak down the side streams for a chance to view wildlife! (Medium: Digital oil brush)

This is the view from my front door. The clematis blooms mid summer and makes a lovely entryway to my home. (Medium: Watercolors with a teeny bit of gel pen highlights)

I've lived in Maryland for most of my life, where the state flower is the Black-eyed Susan. I wanted to learn crochet for a school project when I was eight years old. My left-handed mother was unable to teach me, so she took me to the local yarn store where a nice lady showed me the basics. Fast-forward a few decades and now I get to be that nice lady at another local yarn store. I don’t recall her name, if she ever told me, but I think about her every time I sit down with a student to get them started. (Medium: Wool and embroidery floss on 18-count aida cloth)

This piece was inspired by a photo I took of the view of the Potomac River where Horsepen Run flows into it.  I am working on a project to restore about a mile of Horsepen Run as part of efforts to improve water quality in the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, so I've been spending a lot of time here and this view really means a lot to me. (Medium: Acrylic paint on 5"x7" cardboard canvas, digital editing)

This is a linocut I made of Mt Tahoma (aka Mt Rainier) in Washington state, USA. I had originally made 20 prints of it and mailed them to friends & family I was missing back east (I'm originally from Connecticut lived in WA for about a decade). So this art was literally created to be a postcard. 

I have a great love for that mountain and now that I've moved back to CT, I find myself missing it frequently. On a clear day in WA, I could see it from the end of my driveway. I never got tired of looking at it; it's like the moon that way. When I flew to WA for the very first time, I saw from my window seat. As our plane approached Seattle on a bright autumn afternoon, I saw the mountain peak emerging through the clouds; when I realized what I was looking at, it took my breath away. It remains one of the most profound experiences of my life. (Medium: Linocut print on bristol paper)

Madison was home for me for 9 years, and plastic camera photography helped save my life when I was in graduate school. This is a drawing of one of my photos of the UW Arboretum, originally taken with a Globe (Diana clone) on film. The title is "take me away." (Medium: Soft pastels on construction paper)

I live in South Florida now, but most of my life I lived across the Midwest and Northeastern United States. The thing I miss the most is the forests. Most everything else I can find an approximation of down here -- but not the forests. Palm trees just have nothing on a proper creek running through the woods. This piece is an amalgamation of a number of forests from different parts of my life. The loon and chick would more properly be found on the lakes of my childhood, but are also such a strong symbol of home to me that I had to include them. (Medium: Fabric [various materials], embroidery floss [wool and silk])

Growing up in my confusing, illogical and often scary part of the planet I have always been able to see whole other worlds vividly in my mind and escaping into fantasy and stories has always been my sanctuary. A Pegasus taught me to fly in my lucid dreams and I’ve always felt compelled to make art and communicate through pictures. Celebrating stories amongst fandoms brings me so much love and light.  (Medium: Watercolour, acrylic, vinyl sticker paper, glitter gel, glitter card)

This is the mountain that has been a constant presence on the horizon for 3/4 of my life. My dad and I climbed it shortly after a snowstorm and got a little lost near the top, then found some canine tracks that led us to the summit. The mountain gained its current name in 2023 after years of protest and concerted effort; the name was chosen by the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and replaced the name of a former territorial governor who ordered a genocidal attack on Native people in 1864. The Steller's Jay is one of the most spectacular and beautiful birds native to the area, and here it is perched on the branches of an Engelmann spruce.  (Medium: Procreate)

At 21, I hopped on a plane to New Zealand.  I had never flown, never been to a different state let alone a different country, never traveled alone. But here I went, just over 8,000 miles away to Auckland.  It literally changed my life.  (Medium: Digital art)

The view from my attic window across the rooftops. You get the best English winter sunsets from there. (Medium: Pastel, coloured pencils and black ink on note paper)

This is based off a photo I took of the clouds above my house. I love gazing at clouds so being able to step outside and stare at them anytime I need them is one of my small joys in life.  (Medium: Digital art)

It's a memory of my favorite place to go on vacation (with a little addition of two tiny dots in the water symbolizing a pair of lovers swimming in the sea at night). (Medium: Digital, Procreate app)

A home without a cat is like a house without windows or doors. (Medium: Pencil crayons + digital text)

I redrew this from a photo I took some years ago. Copenhagen is where a large part of my heart still lives, and if my family weren‘t somewhere else, the rest of me would too! (Medium: Digital drawing)

Digital painting of a sunrise on the beach, with clouds on the horizon and lots of sea birds flying over the ocean.

As long as I can bring my books with me, I'll always be home. (Medium: Digital colored pencils)

There was lots of pasture land across the road from the house I grew up in. Those old cow pastures grew lots of milkweed, black-eyed susans, and other wildflowers, and it was always a beautiful riot of color in late summer! We'd walk out there with Mom to look for monarch butterfly caterpillars and to spread the silky milkweed seeds into the air. It's a lovely memory I hope to recreate now with my own milkweed-filled fields!  (Medium: Digital painting)

This is a quick 'n dirty digital artwork of White Pine Beach at Sasamat Lake in Port Moody, British Columbia. It's become my favourite swimming spot over the last couple of years. Cool, clear water, surrounded by nature - no better place to be on a hot summer day! (Medium: Digital vector/raster artwork based on photographs)

This piece is inspired by a bridge on the outskirts of my hometown in western mass. I've seen this view many times throughout my life: on my bus ride to school every morning growing up, while going to my grandpa's lake cabin, to go hiking with my dad, or while floating down the river with friends. It's a simple view that has seen me grow up. (Medium: Gouache paint and digital)

The soft, faded blue peaks of the Appalachian mountains are one of my favorite sights in the world. On hiking or camping trips as a kid, I never paid too much attention to the names of the flora and fauna (that was just nature!), so beginning to learn them as an adult has felt like reconnecting with an old friend. In this postcard, which mimics the screenprinted style of the classic National Parks posters produced in the 1930s and 40s, there are several familiar faces: goldenrod, Queen Anne’s lace, woolly mullein, and of course the monarch butterfly.  (Medium: Digital art)

As an immigrant, calling a certain geographic location home has always been difficult. This land is not mine; only a place that has been hospitable and welcoming in the time which I have had the pleasure of knowing it. My pet sheep and the sunset over open fields are reminders of this place that has been kind enough to host me. I'm moving away soon, across the ocean to the other side of the world, and I wanted this to be a tribute to this place. 

At the same time, I was thinking of how the ocean connects the places I've called home - In Pacific cultures, the ocean is not seen as a boundary, but as a way of connection. While I don't whakapapa (trace my lineage) to this region, this worldview has reframed my geographical understanding of home; the ocean is much more where I find belonging. I think of the oceans I crossed to find myself here, the oceans my ancestors lived by and crossed for me to have been born in my country of birth. I think of my love for the water, the boundless expanse of space, and, of course, the creatures which inhabit it. (Medium: Acrylics)

One of my favourite books is Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane. Since reading it, I've been thinking about the animacy of a river, how they sustain us, and the rivers I've taken for granted. One of these rivers is the Waimakariri river, a braided river which runs by the Canterbury Plains in Te Waipounamu (the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand). Fed by snowfall on the Southern Alps, the river wanders and meanders across an expansive floodplain, where I've sat and ambled right by it. From above, it is a view of streams interwoven with streams, some violent, others restful. It is my favourite place to go out to after work, when the sun is setting behind the alps and the only sounds around you are the call of the water and the birdsong of the early evening. (Medium: charcoal and soft pastels)

I was inspired by the sense of home I have at my grandparent's house and around my grandparents, and my childhood, but I couldn't decide on just one thing. There was a blackberry patch in their yard; we played Rummikub obsessively; my grandma always had fuchsias hanging; and we loved going to Miss Lisa's for ice cream. My grandparents lived super close to the Great Lakes and we spent tons of our childhood on the water or nearby. (Medium: Digital art)

A view of the New York City skyline. (Medium: Mixed media)

The roe deer under the rowan tree remind me of my home in Sweden, in August, as summer comes to an end and autumn begins. (Medium: Gouache on paper)

This is a thank you to the people in my life that give me the courage to use my voice and who have shown me they’re proud of me and that I am loved. (Medium: Colour pencils)

Every childhood summer, I went to the mountains with my family. Catch some fish, sleep under the stars, and play games that are not on the phone.

I lived in Oxford, England for nearly ten years. My favorite place there is on the River Cherwell, immediately southwest of Magdalen Bridge, by the Botanic Gardens.

After some time away from home, there's nothing better than a night's sleep in my own bed. I took some inspiration from Toulouse-Lautrec's 'Le Lit' -- a painter whose work my mum has always loved, and (to me) the truest depiction of what it feels like to be burrowed down somewhere you feel safe and loved. (Medium: Digital art)

This piece is inspired by the Rose Garden Pond at Henry Ford's estate in my home town of Dearborn, MI.  As a kid, I loved the outdoor educational programs put on by the nearby Environmental Interpretive Center,  like the one where we studied the bugs and amphibians we could catch in this pond.  Probably not what old Henry envisioned for his backyard but it helped give me a lifelong love of nature! (Medium: Acrylic paint on 5"x7" cardboard canvas, digital editing)

This is the park Darcydog and I go to all the time for walks, on an autumn day - home both for my best beloved girl, and for a place we are so happy together.  (Medium: Digital art)

My grandparents lived in Paris my whole life, and every summer we spent time in the city. This is the view from the Arc de Triomphe, the first place I ever walked to on my own from my grandparents' apartment. (Medium: Digital art)

I have lived in multiple cities over the years, but I’ve discovered more about myself while living in Baltimore than probably anywhere else. I am more Me now and this is not just the city where I live, it’s the place that I’ve made home. (Medium: Digital art)