I explore “what makes a home?” through patterns, layers, and symbols. My mixed media process is a search for connection to our physical and spiritual worlds expressed through patterns of natural and man-made symbols. The layers in my pieces emulate how I experience reflection. The physical process involves sketching, measuring, tracing, and making templates for my patterns. From there I work back and forth between the overlaid patterns and the scenic backgrounds using ink pens, colored pencils, watercolor, and gouache paints. A portion of my inspiration stems from sharing my bedroom with a refugee family as a child. This opened my mind to diversity and the needs of displaced people. I also draw inspiration from our world’s cultures, tessellations, the geometric patterns of Islamic art and American quilts. To bridge having family and homes in two countries, I use many symbols from Tunisian culture. My work is a mental reflective journey that leads to finding how simplicity can lead to complexity and back again, much like how we are created in nations and tribes but are all of the human race. What really fascinates me is that the process of juxtaposing patterns against the scenic memories of my travels never fails to remind me of the Creator, signs in nature, and our final spiritual home.