she didn't know i'd paint her one day

About this artwork

This painting is drawn from a photograph my mother took of me as a child, lying idly in a princess dress, thumb in my mouth, lost in the quiet rituals of childhood. At the time, the moment was unremarked and unguarded. It existed without performance or awareness, untouched by the knowledge of being seen. To paint this image now is to return gently to a version of myself who did not yet understand observation, judgment, or time. The act of painting becomes one of preservation rather than documentation, an offering of care to a child who lived freely inside her own world. The title holds this quiet distance: she did not know she would be remembered this way, translated through oil and time. I have always wanted to be an artist. In making this work, I imagine that if the child in the photograph could see it now, she would not recognize herself as an image, but as a feeling, held, cherished, and deeply proud to know she grew into the person who painted her.