ARTIST STATEMENT

The central theme of the painting is storytelling – narratives that are both personal and fictional. The folklore from the movie In The Mood For Love (2000) about how characters deal with secrets by whispering them into a hole in a tree to be left to the landscape is the grounding idea for this piece. The painting seeks to explore the importance of stories passed down, shared, documented, and discussed, but also acknowledges the reality of those stories that have been lost. Stories Around the Whispering Tree shows how time and traditions are connected through how we tell stories. This artwork is an ode to my paternal great-grandmother and all the history that died with her.