Home Coming, salvaged wood PETL67

• Reclaimed wood, paint
• 60 x 60 inches

Homecoming brings together recurring themes within my practice: shelter, memory, community, and the emotional architecture of belonging. Constructed from salvaged painted wood, the composition expands the geometric logic of quilts into an imagined neighborhood — part aerial view, part patchwork, part map of human connection. Each small structure is built from discarded domestic material carrying traces of prior use: faded paint, abrasions, weathering, and repair. Rather than conceal these histories, I preserve them, allowing the surfaces to function as evidence of lived experience and continuity. Individually, the forms suggest modest homes, sheds, storefronts, schools, and gathering places; collectively, they become a meditation on how communities are assembled through accumulation, difference, repetition, and care.

The work is also informed by the deeply human vision of community found in the worlds of Richard Scarry and Fred Rogers — places where gentleness and everyday ritual form the foundation of belonging. While playful in rhythm and color, the piece reflects a serious belief in interdependence and the importance of spaces where people can coexist with dignity. Homecoming is also a personal return: to origins, to history, and to the question of where we come from and what we carry forward.