Temple of Light and Shadow is a public sanctuary inspired by a long-held question: what would a modern sacred space feel like? This immersive, intimate structure will be built from stained glass and elemental sound. It is both a continuation and a turning point in my work: for years, I’ve painted the emotional resonance of trees, the memory held in materials, and the wild inner animal. This project brings those themes into built form. Born from visions received and refined through meditation for over a decade, and co-created with my stained-glass-artist mother and carpenter father, the Temple is a space to reflect, reconnect, and remember. I hope not only to build and experience this space, but to paint it, and invite others to do the same. It is a place to dream inside, to sit with archetypes, to translate feeling into form. A joyful, shared threshold between art, spirit, and community.

While this project builds on themes I’ve explored through painting, light, memory, archetypes, and the emotional quality of space, it opens a bold new chapter by bridging my work in art, architecture, and community. It is the first time I am translating meditative visions into a built, immersive form. It brings my architectural training into dialogue with my painting practice and invites public interaction in a space designed for reflection and healing. This project also deepens my community roots through intergenerational collaboration with my parents and participatory programming that invites others to enter, experience, and create within the work.

Through a public-facing build and programming, I will invite others to enter this symbolic terrain. Planned events include:

• A plein air painting day at the site to engage artists and community members in creative reflection

• A sound bath or guided meditation held within the structure and the natural plaza or clearing it creates

• Storytelling centered on transformation, ancestry, and the “inner animal,” with invitations to connect to stories of the land.

Temple of Light and Shadow is where art, architecture, spirit, and community meet. It is sculpture, portal, and living ritual, offered as a joyful threshold between memory and possibility.

• This project is in the conceptual phase and seeking funding.