I started this landscape series during the Artist Mother Virtual Art Residency in February, 2022. I was reading Sally Mann's memoir Hold Still and wanted to investigate my own history in relation to place. I can divide my life into experiences and time spent in different places: New York, Florida, Asia (South Korea and Singapore), and now Georgia. Florida is where I grew up and where, as a young adult, I grew an appreciation for my surroundings. So I went back to Florida and gathered reference material. I draw with graphite and charcoal on paper as a way to bring intention and physical presence to the work, forgoing my usual larger, colorful oil painting. During this residency, I realized the connection this work has to my other work: a sense of place. Later in the residency I picked up Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart and found more words for what I was trying to achieve. As Brown writes in her introduction, “We are meaning-makers, and a sense of place is central to meaning-making”. Place is important and universal. It matters to our biography. My work is about observation, orientation, and connection within my lived experience. My work is to understand and articulate my story in order to connect to others' stories.