Created at the CalArts program California State Summer School for the Arts (2023), THE EMBRACE features a woman in a lonely embrace, dreaming of a space where two women are dancing together and floating over an abstracted pond of lilies. The woman’s head transitions from a logical image to an array of distorted pastels, representing reality versus fantasy; the epitome of the collective modern desire for a romanticized love: one that is too picturesque. On the right is the collaged reference image gathered from magazine cutouts.