Who are you as a human being outside of the art you do? Walk us through your daily habits.

I believe that my creativity as an artist is deeply intertwined with my everyday life. I cannot tap into a nice workflow if my house/environment feels off balance or cluttered. I need a combination of good tunes, flowers, fruits, and a fresh pot of tea to start my day. Though I can’t say I’m 100% committed to any kind of routine, I often start my day by stretching my body and giving thanks. Vibes are important! And so is rest!

How do you Mother yourself? How do you Mother your community and in turn, how do they Mother you?

Rest is very important to me. I have at least three different types of chairs (for different postures) and a daybed in my studio. I’m obsessed with my work, which is a beautiful and exciting feeling, but it can be hard on my body since I’m crunched up, sewing, weaving, and drawing most of the time. I try to move, stretch, and change positions throughout the day.

My work is divided into two forms. There’s my individual creative process, which takes place in my studio and feels like meditating since it is often repetitive, almost like a physical mantra. And then there’s my social artwork, which is community driven and relies entirely on other people’s participation. Opening space for these gatherings is important to me because I know what it feels like to want to belong and connect, and perhaps not finding opportunities to do it in an organic way. I believe working with your hands is healing and makes us engage with our creativity and contributes to our mental well-being in ways that working on a computer never can. Working together with people… it’s such a wonderful feeling.

Your work deals with themes of exile, migration, and displacement. How do you connect these themes to this current time?

In my life, I’ve had to constantly reinvent myself. As an immigrant, a woman, a person of color, a child from a broken home, a part of a growing diaspora, and an artist.

My story is mine, but it is not singular. So many of us, regardless of our backgrounds, must reinvent ourselves and cope with the struggles, challenges, and joys of adapting to new environments while holding on to our roots. I believe as long as we’re still living, moving, and pushing for a better life, these themes will always be current.

How do you use your work to connect these themes with our relationship to the Earth? How does it affect your relationship with Nature?

The materials I mainly use in my work are found, donated, and discarded clothing and fabrics, can be seen as a thread moving between sustainability & criticism to the consumerism we live in.

Every donation I receive has its own symbolic significance. Not only as a contribution, but also as a voluntary release from material memories.

There’s an underlying connection between experiencing an exodus and letting go of the belongings that also made that journey. Trauma lives in the body, but it also lives in the materials that hold us.

Growing up in a country where “things” didn’t work the way they were “supposed” to, taught me how to live resourcefully. Developing these skills and learning how to provide for myself comes directly from trying to live in peace with the environment. This is the future.