Born in Hawaii to a Japanese mother and a military aviator father, Sali Swalla’s early years were spent living in various US  States, as well as Japan and Korea. After attending University in Tokyo, she moved to Los Angeles and finally began to put  down roots. Having moved so often in her youth, Sali developed a unique inner life, fed by the enormous variety of places she has lived. Her work is an expression of a sense of longing and loss, tightly related with a search for wholeness and something beyond the tangible world.  Process-heavy layering, veiling, and scraping away mimic this search and serves as a metaphor for personal growth.