This work began with my grandmother’s album of family photographs, or rather her four plastic storage containers of albums containing pictures of people I did and didn’t know with stories I had and hadn’t heard. When she passed away, my family went through these photographs to remember her life, but it was her practice of keeping this massive treasure trove of history that drew me in.

Here were boxes of stories that, despite being specific to my family, seemed to touch upon a much greater story. There were weddings, funerals, births, dinners, first cars, events thrown together, each unique but still an echo of its ancestors. I was interested in what bound these generations together, how I belonged to this grand narrative of family.

That is why I chose to retell these stories in oil paint on canvas. I worked from photographs of my family and of other families. Some figures are people I know intimately; some are people I will never meet. There is a tension in these paintings between specificity and universality. I left many details open or obscured, inviting the viewer to project themselves into the images. While the viewer may not know the names of my father, my grandfather, or my friends, they know what it is like to belong to someone