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Untended Ritual looks at the daily rituals women and feminine-aligned people move through, and the way a single act can be private joy and quiet obligation at once. The routines performed alone, the preparations made before stepping into the world, the domestic rhythms that pass largely unnoticed: some born of necessity or societal expectation, but often reclaimed as moments of self-care and joy.

The series grew out of my own confrontation with internal and external expectations and obligations. When a family member's serious illness placed me in a caregiver role, I was thrust back into domestic labor I had spent years consciously rejecting. It forced me to reckon with my own assumptions about my identity, and how much of my role I could really control. Washing dishes, putting on makeup, watering the plants: going through the motions was how I processed my emotions, and what held the days together. The tasks were tedious and repetitive, yet their structure and necessity gave me much-needed motion and routine.

The paintings intensify the contrast between darkness and light, portraying pensive subjects with faces obscured by shadow against bursts of bright color. Those choices reference my own year of darkness and uncertainty, holding grief and fear alongside hopefulness, fulfillment, and joy, and the conflict of feeling all of them at once, against the backdrop of mundane domestic tasks.

These paintings document my experiences and travels through the meals that marked them. Each dish carries the memory of a specific place, a moment shared, a culture tasted for the first time or returned to again. A salmon roll from a favorite counter, dumplings ordered on a rainy afternoon, a bowl eaten alone in a new city.

"Up Close" is a series of oil studies of faces seen the way we actually see them: up close, unguarded, caught in a still moment. The ongoing series observes and celebrates women in moments of quiet reflection.

Figurative oil and acrylic paintings exploring identity, expression, and the quiet presence of the subject.