In 2007, I was artist in residence for three months at Cyprus College of Art (which had just opened a new centre in Larnaca) overseeing the summer programme. I quickly established good relationships between the local residential community and the student artists at the college, enabling an exhibition of student work at the local ‘Gallery Kypriaki Gonia’ – with the Mayor as guest of honour. This mutual respect with the community led, in my own practice, to a visual investigation of the lives, and homes of the people I met. Learning just enough Greek to communicate with my new neighbours, we shared food and stories about their lives, while I drew and painted their homes, gardens and backyards – many the product of political displacement bringing valuable insight and life to a series of urban garden works.