Saudades

"Saudade" is an untranslatable Portuguese term expressing an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved, yet absent, something or someone.
The figure embraces someone no longer there — yet it's embraced in return. The missing presence dissolves into a sky of stars: is this person her universe, or is she holding the universe itself, with all its possibilities and emptiness?
The work moves between loss and connection, suggesting that affection endures even when the other exists only as memory.
The artwork was printed and hand-finished with acrylic paint for the stars, making each piece unique, just like each viewer's emotional experience with Saudade.