Prima Casa
2023
8 x 8 inches
Smalti, ecosmalti on wood panel

When I was a kid, my family moved to Italy. As anyone who has had a similar experience knows, a major move in childhood tends to blur the definition of “home” - is it where you’re from, where you are, where your family is, wherever you feel safest? For me, that confusion often manifests as a feeling of loss & grief for an innate stability that I wish I’d had then, and wish I had now. Prima Casa is my first conscious artistic expression of that.

I am really drawn to the imagery of houses in art, but surprisingly this is the first time I’ve made one in mosaic. In the past, I’ve explored the concept of city maps in my pieces Blackout and Our Streets; Prima Casa builds on the technique I established in those two pieces, and I am enjoying thinking of it as a zoomed-in progression to those earlier works.