In March 2025, I returned to Italy for the first time in nineteen years. My father’s family comes from the Ravenna region of Emilia-Romagna, from three small villages: Granarolo Faentino, Cotignola, and Lugo. During my visit, I was invited to create a mural for the community. Through researching the area, I discovered that the canal had long been at the heart of village life, and I made it the central focus of the mural.
This land is known as la pianura — the lowlands — a flat landscape shaped over centuries by an intricate network of canals built to drain marshland and irrigate the surrounding fields.
This body of work continues from the mural in Granarolo Faentino, while expanding to include my time in Bologna. These works turn toward the architecture and surrounding landscapes of Bologna, particularly the Passeggiata di San Luca, a walkway of 666 porticos that forms the longest continuous porticoed route in the world.
