In a contemporary version of the Navajo story, my sister and I set out on our own adventures in my imagined landscape to slay the monstrous snakehead fish in the greenery of our Virginia homeland.

Demigod twins must save the very first village of humans from certain destruction. In the ancient Navajo tale, they set out with questions about where they come from and where they are going. Answers emerge as they slay the monsters invading and destroying their home. In my paintings, my sister and I set out on our own adventures in my imagined landscape to slay the monstrous snakehead fish in the greenery of our Virginia homeland.

We simultaneously leave behind home as we forge a new one. Nostalgia is framed in terms of its etymology: the return to home (nostos) and longing (algia). Nostalgia wraps itself in imagination, in romanticism, in sadness. The Navajo word for this sort of nostalgia is ch’ééná, which is more of a heartbreak when “a way of life is gone forever.” My own construction of home is unavoidably linked to my Navajo and Southern identity—identities that can be highly imagined and self-determined. Leaving home demands choices be made about what to bring with us and what to leave behind.