On view at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain St NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

The artist writes:

My painting focused on absence due to my parents’ deportation. I carried such guilt and it constantly made me question why I didn’t stay with them, but I was too young to have decided. I felt like a ghost just watching on the sidelines, not being able to do anything for a long time. This haunting of my home, this haunting of myself, was such a hollow reality. I watched life move on without me in it and thought, that is the way life is—it will move on without you. Here, life will start again, which can be surprisingly consoling.