Jungle Guide to Getting Lost

In this striking oil-on-canvas piece, a young student stands at the threshold of the domestic and the wild. Clad in a crisp school uniform that feels increasingly out of place, she clutches a dark volume to her face—her only shield against the encroaching emerald tide. The artist uses heavy, textured brushstrokes to create a "living" backdrop of oversized lotus leaves and tangled vines that seem to vibrate with a life of their own. While her attire suggests discipline and structure, the environment represents the beautiful, chaotic unknown. She isn't looking for an exit; she is deep in study, perhaps discovering that the only way to truly understand the world is to let yourself get completely, and utterly, lost within it.