Arts Thread

My project explores my personal growth over the past years, as well as my relationship with home and family. Growing up as the child of immigrant parents, I was taught to value achievement over emotion and success over morality. I learned to see doubt as danger and weakness as something shameful. From a confused girl fighting for her place within the home, I became a woman who creates space for herself and insists on communication. The first series, made up of brooches that trace a metamorphosis from bandage to butterfly, reflects the journey I have been through the liberation found in independence, and the pain that was inseparable from it. The second series deals with my physical and emotional experience. The rings, which transform from a sharp fingernail into a striking snake, were born from the painful feeling of being pinched and constrained while trying to exist as myself within a space that felt different from who I am. Materials: copper, enamel, spring steel, wax. Techniques: casting, hot enamel, overglaze.