Artist Statement

My artwork is about using unassuming objects to evoke nostalgia. Nostalgia has always been a really big part of my emotions. It’s always on my mind, which sometimes helps me but sometimes does not. I decided to use nostalgia in my art to express how unassuming objects remind me of my home. Things that I see everyday at home are the things that remind me most of home. I don’t notice these things when I am in my house, but after I have left my home all the moments that remind me of these everyday objects evokes nostalgia. I have created mostly small scale work in my thesis series. I have tried to reproduce every detail of the unassuming objects, or at least try to make it look like them. The scale of the work matters to me because it made my emotion of nostalgia less strong. Visuals are the first things that helps me to remember something. There are stages of nostalgia that I have to go through; first, seeing the environment and getting used to the environment, then missing the environment after I left it. When I see the dioramas that I made, I feel like I am in control of my feelings. When my real house is shrunk to a size that is that small, it is easy to carry it around, which makes me feel less nostalgic about the objects that I remember. Or at least it helps me miss it with a smile on my face, instead of missing it while crying in my bed.