Seeking a Place: An ongoing series since 2021
In my life, I haven’t often felt like I truly belonged. I’ve floated along and around different places and groups for varying amounts of time, but never felt fully rooted. It seems like everyone else is solidly attached, so I don’t talk about these feelings. But I hope that I’m not alone in feeling lonely and out of place. So this self-portrait project is an ongoing exploration of the profound human desires for belonging and acceptance, and fears of rejection and loneliness.
The project focuses on a faceless, solitary figure clad in a white dress, to signify a universal blank slate. She searches different locations asking, Is *this* a place for me? The person is exploring nature scenes to represent the world in general, instead of a specific location. (Ironically, being in nature is also the ultimate freedom to express oneself.) Sometimes the figure is standing, watching, observing, even trying to hide. Sometimes the figure is in motion, fighting demons of insecurity, or trying to chase a sense of kinship, or escape from judgement and venture into the unknown. After all, if a person doesn’t find their own place, they may just say, I will make my *own* place.
It is my hope that this project leads viewers to put themselves in that white dress and recognize their own experiences with loneliness and belonging, and to start the conversation that maybe more of us struggle with this than we realize
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