Omar St.

I come from proud Swiss immigrants, a line of devout Catholics, the neighborhood party planners, the rough hands of a tinkering landscaper and soft hands of a firm homemaker. I was raised on bread and cheese, Sunday mass, kafi fertig at all evening social gatherings, loud gossip, quiet shame, and swaddled with grandparent love. Explorations of Omar St. focus on the setting of my grandparents’ home where my maternal family’s stories unfolded for 56 years, spanning three generations. I investigate my attachments to this house, the emotional and tangible inheritances from it, it’s messaging and narratives, and the objects inside—some tattered and well-loved and others immaculately preserved in glass cabinets. An ongoing processing of my heritage and what I choose to take and leave from it, the Omar St. series is an outlet to express my inspiration, fascination, nostalgia, melancholy, love, and bitterness for all that a home was and can be.