The Memory Beneath, 2025

Diptych: “Tether” (left) & “Flow” (right)

90”H x 120”W (total), each panel 90” H x 60” W

These two large-scale paintings—Tether and Flow—form a unified piece titled The Memory Beneath. Inspired by sea kelp—vast, flowing, and quietly powerful—this work explores the tension between what grounds us and what propels us forward. Kelp doesn’t resist the tide—it moves with it, stretches toward light, and nourishes everything around it, even while anchored in shadow. It carries the memory of ecosystems, adapting and reemerging over generations. In the same way, memory flows through my work—not as literal images but as emotional traces that settle deep. Each layer of paint holds onto what came before, just as we carry our past, inherited instincts, and the stories that shape us.

Tether speaks to the grounding forces in our lives: lineage, care, community, and love. Flow represents surrender, movement, and the unpredictable current of becoming. Together, they create a cinematic underwater world—an emotional landscape shaped by resilience, interconnection, and change, asking—what do we cling to and what do we release?

The Memory Beneath is about quiet strength—the ability to root into what’s known while rising toward an uncertain future. It speaks to the emotional infrastructure within that steadies us when things feel unstable: intuition, memory, and the deep knowing of how we’ve endured before—how we know how to care for each other and how to hope for a better future.