Where California Began

About the work

I spent my mid-twenties in San Diego, CA. It was a fraught time, both glorious in the careless abandonment with which I lived my post-college life, and painful in the way that new adulthood can be, full of questioning and lessons and exploration and revelation. The bright palette and playful use of light relate to the hopeful nostalgia I feel when thinking about this time in my life, and how the endless-summer vibe of southern California contributed to the formation of my life-view that the pursuit of joy is worthy and ubiquitous. “Where California Began” depicts a scene from Point Loma, a peninsula region near downtown San Diego. The title draws from a slang term that was historically used to describe Point Loma, so close to the southern US border. It also relates to the personal relationship I have with this place, a place where so many of my adult beginnings took place.