Return Me to the earth
TMU IMAGE ARTS THESIS 2025
As a child, I spent much of my time exploring the forest behind my house. Much like childhood, it seemed to have no end, its branches welcoming me back no matter how long I was away. More than just a physical space, it was a refuge where I could exist freely, away from the constraints of the outside world - I haven't been back to that forest in years. Not since I left.
And yet, here in Toronto I suddenly find that I am surrounded by parts of myself I thought surely had been lost to time. Could it be that the forest of my childhood, and the one I am walking in now are not separate beings but mere reflections of one another? Could it be that the winds blew the fragments of myself I left behind all those years ago and planted them here amongst the trees?
Rummaging under logs and in the water there seems to exist a space that was waiting for me. I have never been here before and yet I could be lying alongside my childhood self. It is a natural thing to want to remain in this solace, free of expectations and judgements. But as the sun sets on my discovery, I begin to realize that entwined with the gentleness of this first meeting, exists a great deal of sadness. The memories are tainted. I mourn for this time, or at least I mourn for what could have been.Still, something settles in me. A clarity I haven’t felt before. In this place, I am finally able to revisit memories of the past and ultimately allow them to grow beyond my own perception of them, transforming nostalgia into something generative, rather than limiting. Only by succumbing to this process of acceptance, am I able to exist freely. To embrace decay and the evolution it represents, is not to condemn oneself to death, but rather welcome myself back to life.
The terrarium serves as an extension of the forest, this “return to earth” holding the key to everyone I have ever been and everyone I will ever become - the one constant in my life that not only embraces change but requires it..
THESIS ADVISOR: Sara Angelucci
SPECIAL THANKS TO Alyssa Bistonath, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Michelle Fletcher, Jane O’Donnell & Madison Chow
