Over the last 18 months the meaning of “home” has changed in many ways for me. The first announcement of lockdown meant bewilderment, confinement and solitude. But the pandemic has forced me to look inward in many ways and I eventually I came to consider my home a place of sanctuary and refuge, belonging and contentment. It’s where I experience a sense of peace. It’s where I don’t have to be perfect. I can put on my PJs, sit down with a cup of tea or a glass of wine next to me, and think my thoughts. The dust bunnies are fine with it. How might I express this feeling of home through photography? After the realization that the everyday and the ordinary are important, I began to observe my home environment and the effects of window light on the scattered stuff of my daily clutter. I discovered opposites…harsh/diffuse, intense/subtle, bright/dim. Sometimes brilliant white. Sometimes subtle blue. I knew I wanted to create a painterly effect like the work of American artist Carole Rabe. Her paintings of interiors are at once intimate and welcoming. Her work gave me the impetus to explore the tools in Photoshop which helped me to create textured surfaces and the qualities and “colour” of light in my photos. These tools included brushes, gradients, adjustment layers and filters. Through this project I’ve had a chance to look at my surroundings in a new light, in new light, in light. And I conclude that light creates relationships and interactions between the mundane objects that I might ordinarily overlook. I’ve also concluded that there’s no place like home.