As a child, I believed in the magic of dressing up.

Lipstick, red ribbons, heels clicking down the hallway. I remember catching my reflection and feeling butterflies in my stomach. There was something magical about imagining who I could be.

Growing up, I began to understand that being a woman came with expectations. Some were spoken, others were simply understood. I became aware that there were ways to be, and ways not to be; parts of ourselves we could show, and others we learned to keep to ourselves.

Looking back, I find myself wondering how these ideas take shape, how they are passed down, and how much of who we become is shaped by the women and the world that came before us.

Woman of the Tide is an ongoing artistic research project rooted in my family history and my own experience of becoming a woman. Through image-making, self-portraiture and fragments of memory, I explore what we inherit, what we carry, and how we find our own way within it.

For me, this is also a journey of discovering what it means to be a woman on my own terms. A question that has no fixed answer, but changes as I do. I am learning that becoming myself is not a destination, but an ongoing process of moving, questioning and finding my way again.