Social observation is a lifelong passion of mine and I like to experience my city through other people’s narratives. I’m curious what draws people to a place and how they mark it. The earliest origin for my Reality Bites series - the glowing heart of it - is my memory of walking down Granville Street as a young girl with my grandfather. I remember the street was aflame with the colour and energy of the neon signs and I sparked to that glamour. But for this series I chose to use the iconic lure and colourful nostalgia of many key Vancouver locations to present some honest stories and hard truths that live in their shadows. The scenes are intended to be fragmentary - mystery stories that serve as microcosms of this city’s social hierarchy and intimate character studies that explore faces and people that I’ve felt compelled to notice. These are slices of life and the viewer may complete the narrative. But for me, these are stories of a city that while troubled and hard-bitten always remains alluring.