105 Black Oak Avenue has had a special place in my heart for as long as I can remember. It’s the house that I was brought home to as a newborn, the house where my parents split up, the house where I learned to play music, the house where I painted the walls pink, the house where I grew up. Coming home to this house truly feels like coming home. It is the place I feel embraced and known.

In high school, I separated from this home in a very dramatic teenage moving out. While estranged, my dad married and moved away from Black Oak. I was devastated that the chapter of living with my single dad in my childhood home was over. It felt like my childhood was gone.

After five years of ‘separation,’ Black Oak called me back home and I moved back in during May of 2023. Because it sat empty for so long, it needed a lot of work, so I have been renovating and making the house my own. It has been a bittersweet process of remembering the past and embracing the future. 

While demoing my childhood bathroom, I saw all of the broken tiles scattered around me and realized I couldn’t just throw them away, so I decided to give them a new life. Black Oak Bathroom is a reflection on the evolution of the house, specifically my childhood bathroom. While demoing the bathroom, I have found layers of old wallpaper, some dating back to the 1960s and my mothers handwriting on the walls from over twenty years ago. This piece is a testament to Black Oak. It's a remembrance of what came before my inhabitance, a reflection on my memories and an embrace to the future of the home.