I found the inspiration in a small hidden pond near Middleton Forest. That evening, as my daughter and I walked the dog, we discovered a secret passage behind the bushes — a doorway into the hidden world. It was that curious, childlike wonder that inspired me. I remembered how to be a child again: how to be curious, and how to live in the moment.

In my work, the swan is a symbol of those forgotten dreams — the ones we suppress as we grow older, carrying them in a bag behind us. When I bring them back, they are not always perfect; sometimes they are warped, like a memory that changes each time we recall it. As I work in monotype printing, I redraw each image again and again, and the swan, like those dreams, emerges slowly — as slow as the way back to your true self.