Familiar Stranger – ‘What We Carry’ Collection

Mixed media on canvas, acrylic, ink.

Framed in bare ayous wood, L shaped— 53 x 78 x 4 cm.  (20″ x 24″ x 1.6″)

This piece began with the word take. I had just experienced something that left me feeling stripped—like someone had taken from me without care or thought. That word was my starting point, and the rest came in a rush of emotion—paint layered, scraped, scratched, and pushed until something shifted.

Through that chaos, this face appeared—an old man in profile, uninvited but strangely present. I didn’t plan for him, but there he was. A familiar stranger. Maybe a part of myself, maybe someone from memory, maybe just a reflection of what I was holding inside.

This painting holds grief, frustration, release—and the strange comfort of meeting something (or someone) I didn’t know I needed to see.