In thinking about what is sacred to me, I began thinking about my relationships with the people who are important to me and how I occupy spaces with those people. There is something special in the way spaces transform to become part of those relationships and the space itself begins to take on a personality of its own. A shift happens when you begin to make a space “your own,” and I wanted to personify that feeling. In thinking of ways to represent how a space “comes to life,” I found myself taking those words literally. 

The space I chose to depict is a place where I have spent a lot of time, and it has become something of a gathering place for the people closest to me. Because of this relationship, the space itself has become a source of comfort and meditation. I chose to depict its personality along with its materiality by giving faces to various elements of the space. Stylistically, I drew on the vibrant, stylized interiors of Todd Westover and the expressive, flowing skies of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, balancing recognizable structure with a sense of movement and emotion.

Within the painting, the interior remains calm and welcoming, while the exterior swirls with chaos, suggesting the unpredictable world outside while the space within stays calm and welcoming. It is this feeling that I hold sacred and am lucky to be able to share with the people in my life.