“From One to Another is my way of honoring each of my sisters and emphasizing their importance in my life. It’s about highlighting who they are, how they grew up, and how we grew up together. I’ve intertwined past memories to create new ones, repurposing materials and media to reintroduce sentiments that have nearly been forgotten. By making various types of handmade paper and printing images that I’ve sourced from digital archives or from VHS tapes I’ve digitized, I am able to manifest a visual representation of my care into the physical realm. 

The representation of my sisters as stars comes from the similarities in the birth of new stars and fetal microchimerism, as well as the symbolism of the Northern Star. When a star dies and explodes, the materials from that blast get used when a new star forms. Fetal microchimerism is the process in which fetal cells are transferred to an expecting mother from her child. These residual cells can later be passed to future siblings of that first child. 

Historically, stars have been a symbol of hope, guidance, and protection– things my sisters have provided my entire life. They are also a big part of me, maybe even more so than I had originally thought. By depicting them as stars, I amplify their significance in my life to a celestial realm, putting their worth physically and symbolically above all the known things that may overshadow them here.”

This was my Senior Thesis as an undergrad.