Parenting during the pandemic brought back a flood of memories from my girls’ early childhood when time felt slower and we were tethered to home. This shifted my perspective and gave me clarity to try for the third child I often longed for, but had been too scared to ‘start over’. This painting was inspired by the infertility journey that followed, as well as the Amate bark paper tradition in Mexico, historically used for fertility rituals. My work explores the value of archetypal symbols found in global textiles and folk art. I use pattern and repetition to explore symbols that embody universal meanings and connect us in our shared human experiences.