Within the Garden, oil paint, fabric, and string on unstretched canvas, 40 x 28 in., 2019. This painting is part of my "Hidden Figures" series where I explored concepts of flawed, idealized memory and sentimentality. I paint figures in an abstracted, dreamlike setting pulled from family photographs. Mimicking how our perception of reality can become trapped behind layers of wants and desires. I then take it a step further and fuse the painting with the idea of a traditional tapestry. Sacrificing the “perfect” image behind a veil of sheer fabric and string to demonstrate memories as separate from reality, incapable of being relived or experienced twice. The vertical white strands of string sewn across the surface of the painting reference how tapestries are made on a loom. The painting has a fabric border to act as a frame, with d-rings sewn into the back to hang loosely on a wall.