I combine everyday images of the trees outside my window, flowers I come across, or people in my life, and then add Islamic geometric patterns over them to suggest relationships.

The tiny shapes are like building blocks, combining to make a pattern, but changing one can shift the whole image. The breaks and mistakes in the pattern are my favorite part because they remind me there is no such thing as perfection. From a distance, the images snap into focus, although I am especially interested in the tension of abstracting the recognizable image with the patterns.

One of the most notable aspects of living in the Bay Area is the prevalence of nature: soaring trees, golden hills, and most significantly on a human scale, masses of flowers. The vivid flashes of color from California poppies are bright spots of sunshine dotting the landscape in April and May. The gift of beauty of wildflowers is a welcome mat from the universe, offering lessons of resilience, strength in community, and the power of seemingly fragile beauty to change a place and the people who pass through there.