Longing Is the Violet exists as a personal exploration of longing. A part of this exploration begins with the phenomenon of how a smell can awaken an instant reaction, feeling, or memory, and how the scent of a violet is a metaphor for longing. In this body of work, I am reckoning with the intangible notions that are tied to a craving to express longing: the dissolution of memory, physical objects, connection, and the passage of time.

This paper delves into these topics, parsing through the operation of memory as a constant re-construction of thought, and objects as conduits for emotional evocation and totems for human connection. The lifecycle and disintegration of objects is linked to our own deterioration of the body and forgetting. There is frustration around trying to lasso such slippery concepts and assign language to these themes of longing, as well as my own predisposition to yearn, from growing up an only child into a world of queer erasure, where drawing and observing the world around me became my confidant. I am striving to give the realms of intangibility a physical ground in which to contextualize my art.