Artist Statement
A Window into Nostalgia
I remember going to my grandparent’s house after church, singing karaoke with all my titos, titas, cousins, walking to highland farms with my Lola, eating in Mandarin for one of my family members birthday celebration for the 1000th time. All of it was good. I look back at pictures and videos of my childhood and all I can see is pure happiness, joy and love. For a very long time, even until now I wonder how I was so happy as a kid. Or why I was so happy as a kid. At the start of middle school into highschool, I struggled a lot with who I was, my expectations, my mindset, my outlook on life and could never understand what happened to the happy kid. I came to the conclusion there were two answers: one I was surrounded by people who care about me and two, like any other kid, I didn’t know anything.
My parents and extended family are known to document the past, the good times, my childhood through countless photo albums and video tapes. It’s interesting to think that photos and videos act as time capsules of forgotten memories. Everytime I look back, I’m always shocked and remember things differently. This series of four misremembered memories of my childhood is an homage to my cousins. I grew up with my two cousins who live right across from me. They were the first two people in my life I was fully comfortable with and let in. They always treated me with patience, support, comfort and love. They constantly matched my energy and it has never been a dull moment with them. The summer of 2018 was when it occurred to me how important they are in my life. How much they influenced my interests, my personality and my outlook in life. How much they set the standard of what type of people I should surround myself with in the future.