On this Christmas Eve I imagine the atoms of my body being forged and assembled over billions of years in the hearts of stars and the big bang by Mirena Rhee

I imagine all the lonely particles swirling around in very hot places and then being ejected and traveling as fast as light and then meeting other particles billions of years down the road, even more swirling around and then boom a human baby. Imagine some of me could have been the moon instead of me. This entire ordeal is much more entertaining than the entirety of human history if it were ever to be recorded.

And so was every homeless person in new york. We are all one and the same thing.

2023 by Mirena Rhee

Drawing and painting are the jewels of my existence. I'm exalted when I feel very close physically to the pigments of yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, and mars red. They are my drugs.

Whenever I draw and paint these are the stars of my existence in a field of endless darkness. I feel physical pain being separated from the feeling of applying paint or scratching the surface of smooth paper with a dip pen, and I crave to experience it again.

I spent a month with my nose right up to the surface of a painting looking through the lenses of my glasses and magnifying glass. I stare at that surface like it's the surface of another planet that I'm just creating. I can't wait to experience that ecstasy again.