There is no home like me: MFA Thesis - Drawing & Painting

Abstract

There is No Home Like Me explores of the anxieties that I carry with me, my need to be comforted and finding a home within myself. Each piece focuses on what I reach for to provide myself with a sense of security and cope with memories of my painful experiences. The embrace of a stuffed animal, the shelter of a bedroom, and the love for a pet provide safety from an overwhelming force of anxiety, which I represent as a swarm of wasps. Slowly, I am teaching myself how to be comfortable with being my own home. I am contemplating what defines a home, if there are specific markers that indicate if something is a home. Is it a place? Can it be a person? Or do I only find my home through myself and become comfortable within my own body and that becomes enough? The title of this show comes from a poem by Rupi Kaur about accepting one’s body and taking care of it, because it is your home. I feel as though one day I can do the same as the lines in the poem state, to “look down at your body / whisper / there is no home like you”.