My practice explores the identity of the in-between, the overlap in the Venn diagram of two cultures. As a Romanian-born, US-raised artist, I want to preserve and broadcast links to the cultures of my upbringing and birthplace. My understanding and experience of Romania has always been defined by my family. In the wake of my last grandparent’s death, the relationship becomes unclear. In my attempts to ground and define my own identity, I look to my parents and grandparents for cues on how they made a home for themselves wherever they went, reflecting their experiences with voluntary and involuntary displacement.

I use materials that served us as portable points of connection and placeholders, easily sent through the mail or the suitcases of other immigrants—primarily drawing, painting, and sewing on textiles and paper. Weaving information shared by generations of my family within the historical and pop-culture climates of Romania and the United States, I intend to embody what I was taught: home is made by the sharing of stories and the familial value of care of others.