Magnolia Lake

Magnolia Lake is a quiet, layered painting about coming home in an in-between space, a place where mist softens the view and time moves slowly. A magnolia branch hangs over the water, partly in bloom and partly still only a pale outline, as if some things already exist while others are still becoming. In the water drifts a folded paper crane: fragile and light, yet gently carried by the surface.

The work reflects on identity and the release of what does not truly belong to you. In the story connected to this image, the crane once tried to wear the feathers of others in order to belong. Here, at the lake, in the mist and near the magnolia, it lets those borrowed feathers go, one by one. There is no dramatic transformation, only a quiet realization: you do not have to become someone else in order to come home to yourself.