I have lived in 12 different apartments, moving from arid desert to the Pacific Northwest to New York City, from the time I first set foot in this country 13 years ago. Lately, my travel needs have made me a frequent hotel guest. In my art, I use these inanimate objects I accumulated and traveled with as proxies for how my life is perpetually in transit.

Photographs taken of apartments I’ve lived in and hotel rooms I’ve stayed in are “updated” with acrylic paint in a manner similar to “whiting-out” a document, “removing” the persons and belongings that are no longer present after I vacated. Being fully aware of the textural differences between the photographic space and the painted surface, and allowing the audience to detect the alteration and cover-up effort, I am communicating how I often feel when taking a last look at the now-foreign space I once occupied. No matter how well I have restored the apartment/room to its original condition, the memory of my occupation lingers.