This painting was inspired by my return to Otaniemi, Finland, after 25 years. As a student, I had spent nearly a year here, and coming back brought a profound sense of recognition and change. The bay, the trees, and the light felt familiar, yet time had transformed everything in subtle ways. By painting the old tree trunk alongside younger trees and saplings at the shoreline, I sought to capture this paradox — how places remain the same, yet never quite as they were. It is a meditation on memory, time, and renewal.