Sonder Walk LA

Sonder: The overpowering understanding that each person, every passerby, is living a life as full and complex as your own.

This project started during the pandemic when I began to go on walks. I realized that I knew Los Angeles only as a series of byways ­– liminal spaces to drive between my home and destination. I began documenting my walks with a giant map on my wall, marking off the streets I had seen on foot. I covered my neighborhood, and then began venturing further. To date, I have walked 238 miles of Los Angeles streets.

I created a series of watercolor paintings to document each walk, the route I took, the mileage, and a view that caught my eye, if only for a moment. I believe there’s magic in the everyday, in the small items that are familiar to some, and unimportant to others. This is my project to create a record of what brought me joy, from a city often too large to be seen.