Something worth saving

This piece tells a deeply personal story - my journey of returning home after five years away and all the complicated emotions that came with reconnecting with family.

The flexible structures that look like growing strings represent the connections that somehow stayed strong despite all that time and distance. They're about those enduring family bonds and how you can find stability in different places - both in your childhood home and in the new life you've built somewhere else.

The gradient from pink to purple means everything to me. The pink at the top represents that warmth and nostalgia you feel when you first come home - everything flooding back at once. As it deepens to purple, it shows the maturity and growth that happened during those years away. How I changed, even when home stayed the same.

The sense of reaching out or feeling around that you see in this piece reflects what it's really like to reconnect with a place that's familiar but different. It captures that delicate balance between the comfort of home and the slight disorientation of returning somewhere that's evolved while you were gone.

Creating this involved so many layers - carving, hand-sculpting, sanding, building up texture with drywall mud and plaster, priming, spray painting, hand-painting details, and adding handmade pearl elements. Each step felt like I was working through the layers of coming home itself.

This sculpture is about recognizing what's worth holding onto, even when everything else changes.

What it's made of: Multi-layered sculpture with carved and sculpted elements, gradient paint, and handmade pearl details
Size: 17.5 x 17.5 x 4.5” / 11 lbs