family en route

family en route is the name of my side series, composed mostly in watercolor. I wanted to pay homage to my heritage and provide a backstory to the Portals series in a way that was representational without the technicality of my acrylic and oil paintings. The loose feel of watercolor is a way to focus on the feeling of a fish fry, or of sitting on the porch. Family is a big deal to me, and as a young adult, dealing with the reality of family versus what I had romanticized as a child, has been a harsh introduction into reality. As much as I’ve witnessed love and beauty, I’ve also witnessed hate, gossip, and disregard, and coming to terms with the latter has taken its toll over the past 13 years. In this time period I’ve also dealt with loss, health scares, mental health crises, rape, coercion, and self-loathing that made the loss of my family ideal even more traumatic. Through it all, there have been some deeply important lessons to ingest, as I work to build a life that honors myself and those I love. The biggest mistake I made was thinking my family had arrived, but I’ve learned that they, that we, are a family en route: ever-evolving, growing, surprising one another with the relational intelligence that I, in my limited ego, did not think was possible.

-Liz