Comusina Celan is a mixed media painter who currently lives and works in New Orleans, LA. After being awarded a fellowship to paint in San Jose, Costa Rica, and later a residency in northern Germany, Celan began to question the meaning of location, home, and our tenuous relationships to both place and other people. During this time, she became intrigued by the collection of stories and our methods of interpretating and spreading these tales worldwide. In turn her paintings combine layers of paint, recycled paper, cloth, and maps to create or retell narratives found in folk tales, songs, and poems.
"I am fascinated by the idea of a traveling home. Nomads, Migrants, Gypsies, Transients, Tramps, Travelers: we have many names for those who live in many places and claim none as his or her own. I find myself asking: What qualifies as a home? Is it the feeling of comfort, or a familiar location? What interpretations of home can be found in literature and in our daily routines? Could a home be the means of one's travel: a ship, a train, a wagon, a horse, a drug, or a womb?"