22.5″L x 15.5″W

This piece was originally inspired by my recent move from Virginia to Pennsylvania during the pandemic. My children selected the flora included, all of which grew on or near the little farm near the Potomac where I was raised. Gingko, beech, mountain laurel, empress, honeysuckle, morning glory, ferns and their fiddleheads, and reishi. Places hold memories, and it’s easy for a location to become home in your mind, but the truth is, you carry your home with you. It is ever growing, ever changing, and yet it is a constant.

In that same way, ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ grew from its original concept to be about something bigger.

2020 resulted in a lot of loss for many people. Loss of loved ones, loss of houses, loss of careers, loss of physical touch, loss of security, and it would be very easy to feel a loss of home/heart as well. Those struggling with depression, addiction, domestic violence, navigating the foster system, single parenthood, etc have suddenly found their lives both more and less complicated. Distractions and support systems are fewer, but needs are greater. At a time when our nation feels very divided, I think home and the heart can feel like an unsafe or lost concept, and it’s all too easy to become rigid, to put up walls, to isolate.

I think it’s important to remember to instead keep our hearts soft, to open our ‘homes’ a little, to hold onto some sweetness, and to be kind and patient with one another.

A special thank you to my husband, whose roots are in the dark soil and blue-green waters of Pennsylvania, but whose heart is everywhere for me. I love you.